72 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



near the base, a very large tree for this region. The nest was about 

 24 feet from the ground and 10 inches out from the trunk on a hori- 

 zontal limb, well sheltered from above and on the north and east 

 sides by thick foliage. It was apparently a new nest, made of dead 

 sticks and lined with masses of soft, fine rootlets, a few small twigs 

 and pieces of bark, and a few feathers. It measured 20 by 15 inches 

 in outside and 9 by 8 inches in inside diameter; it was hollowed to a 

 depth of 2 inches and was only 5 inches high over all. The four eggs 

 that it contained had been incubated for about a week. 



My third nest was in an entirely different situation, and we were 

 puzzled for a long time to find it, although the hawks advertised it in 

 no uncertain terms. On June 19, 1912, while we were hunting around 

 Gafftopsail in Newfoundland, a pigeon hawk flew out from a large 

 tract of heavy spruce and fir woods, yelling and showing every sign of 

 anxiety. But, though I searched those woods thoroughly for over an 

 hour, no occupied nest could be found. Meantime, my guide, who 

 was sitting out on an open hillside to watch the birds, saw the male 

 falcon hover for an instant over a little hummock on the hillside. 

 As he walked toward it the female flushed from her nest when he was 

 about 100 yards from it. The nest, containing five eggs, was on the 

 ground in a roomy hollow under some low, scraggly firs and spruces 

 only a few inches high (pi. 17). The hollow was lined with bits of 

 twigs and a few feathers. 



I heard of two other cases where these falcons had nested on the 

 ground in that vicinity. Also, out of seven sets of pigeon hawks' 

 eggs in W. J. Brown's collection, three of them were taken from nests 

 on the ground, all from this same general region. He also refers, in 

 his notes, to a nest found in Matane County, Quebec, that was about 

 50 feet up in a spruce tree. 



Dr. Harrison F. Lewis (1922) writes: 



On June 22, I found, a few rods west of the first falls of the Little Natashquan 

 River, a rather unusual nest of this species. It was on the ground, among the 

 Reindeer lichen, on the summit of a small knoll of gentle slope. A black spruce 

 "tree" which had grown here for many years, until it had attained a height of 

 about 3 feet and a width of 6 feet, had died, apparently two or three years pre- 

 viously, leaving a confused snarl of stiff dead limbs. The Pigeon Hawks had 

 placed their nest beneath this shelter. The nest, which was about 6 inches across 

 and 1 inch deep, was a depression in the soil, here composed of sand and rotten 

 wood, and was lined with a few small scales of bark, picked by one or both of the 

 Hawks from the base of the trunk of the sheltering "tree," as was clearly indicated 

 by the recent scars on that trunk. Four eggs rested on these bits of bark. One 

 Hawk flew from the nest when I approached it, and it and its mate scolded me 

 vigorously, charging repeatedly to within a few feet of me, as long as I remained 

 in the vicinity. 



Dr. Lynds Jones wrote to Major Bendire (1892) "that he found a 

 nest of this species near Grinnell, Iowa, on April 28, containing four 

 eggs. They were placed in a hole in an American linden tree about 



