EASTERN SPARROW HAWK 109 



trating this habit Mr. Bent notes a nest "in an old pigeon box, 

 with an outside entrance in the upper story of a barn, a bulky nest of 

 grass at one end of the box — probably an old nest of pigeons", and S. F. 

 Rathbun submits (MS.) the following vivid picture, showing unusual 

 surroundings of a sparrow hawk's nest: "In May, 1932, we were in the 

 elevated plateau section of a county in central Washington. Formerly 

 this part of the county was more or less covered with sagebrush, but 

 now raises much grain. At infrequent times one will come across a 

 building that has been abandoned for some reason, and it is always 

 worth while to look over such a building, for some species of bird may 

 be nesting in it, as that section of the country has a very sparse 

 tree growth. 



"We went into such a structure and, on entering a ground-floor room, 

 caught the flash of a bird as it flew from the room through a window 

 lacking its upper sash. There was only one place from which the 

 bird could have flown, a round entrance hole for a stovepipe on the 

 face of the lower end of a brick chimney entering the room on one side 

 from above, the base of the chimney resting on a shelf about 8 feet 

 from the floor. Within the chimney, below the stovepipe hole, was 

 a space 3 or 4 inches deep, which a sparrow hawk was using as a place 

 for nesting. The bottom ol this space was rather thinly strewed with 

 droppings from wood rats, there being more than a handful, and mixed 

 with the droppings, were some few bits of rotten bark and wood. On 

 this latter were five eggs that the hawk was incubating. 



"This dwelling was overrun with wood rats (Neotoma cinerea 

 occidentalis) , which had torn into small pieces much of the paper that 

 had been on the walls, evidently using some of it for their nests. 

 Scraps of paper were on all sides, and likewise, scattered everywhere, 

 was excrement from the wood rats. Never before have I seen such 

 a mess. As we walked about, now and then a rat scampered from 

 under foot, and we heard others at work within the walls. There 

 was no sign that the pair of hawks had interfered with the animals, 

 or vice versa, as far as the nest was concerned. Possibly some sort 

 of truce may have existed between the birds and the rats. No one 

 knows." 



Miss Althea R. Sherman (1913), who had an exceptionally favor- 

 able opportunity to watch from a blind a pair of sparrow hawks 

 rearing their young, has published her observations in detail in an 

 article to which the reader is referred, as only the salient facts can be 

 quoted here and in the section under "Young." She says: "The first 

 egg was deposited on April 28 before eleven o'clock in the morning, 

 and an egg was laid on each alternate day until the sixth, and last, on 

 May 8. * * * Incubation was performed mainly by the female, 

 only once was the male found in the nest. * * * Sometimes it 

 was noted that the eggs were left uncovered nearly or quite an hour, 



