44 Bird -Lore 



completed in utmost secrecy. After the first eggs are laid, however, 

 the devoted pair so demean themselves that one with even a slight 

 experience in Marsh Hawk ways need spend but a half-hour, at al- 

 most any time of day, in locating a Marsh Hawk nest within his 

 horizon. 



Three distinct forms of nesting site are observable on the northern 

 Minnesota prairies : low spots in fallow fields, or in meadowy prairie 

 expanses, wherein the grass grows rankly ; narrow sconces, amid tiny 

 willow clumps ; and, sometimes, brushland knolls, tributary to the 

 feeding grounds. The two open sites, apparently equally favored, 

 seem to be much preferred to the brushy coverts : but this preference 

 may be apparent only as one sees better and further on the open 

 land. Probably the low, weedy and grassy areas on fallow ground 

 are more used than any other sites along the Red River of the North; 

 for here there is abundant run-way and hide-way for the growing 

 Hawklets ; while the favorite forms of food (field-mice and sper- 

 mophiles), though not more common than on the meadows and the 

 prairies, are, as a rule, more easily seen and taken on these open 

 hunting grounds. And this certitude and nearness of food must be 

 a prime consideration in the nest-locating : for when there are from 

 three to eight insatiable maws for two mortal parent Hawks to fill, 

 the economic question must rule, — even with the birds. Two excep- 

 tional sites must here be noted ; both found, curiously enough, on 

 the same day and but eighty rods apart. Each was placed on the 

 level upland prairie, amid scanty growth, and was made flimsily of 

 weeds ; each set consisted of six eggs : and all the eggs were ex- 

 quisitely marked. 



It is first in the choice of its nesting sites and then in the whole 

 conduct of its domestic economies, that the wonderful diversity of the 

 Marsh Hawk from its congeners constantly appears. I never yet saw 

 a pair of Marsh Hawks, or a brood of young, and I have seen very 

 many of both, that did not show surprising individualisms that have 

 added incalculably to the pleasure of summer bird studies. 



There is a wide variance in the amount of nest material, and in 

 the depth and tidiness of the nest. On higher land the nests are 

 often the scantiest ; the brushland nests consisting often of but a 

 wisp of weedy material. Yet, curiously enough, the most elaborate 

 and sumptuous nest I ever foiuid was on a hazel knoll : the explana- 

 tion for which lay, perhaps, in the fact that rain-spoiled hay-cocks 

 of the previous season lay, in this case, just at hand. With this 

 exception, it is the lowland nests that are built up most, these often 

 rising to a foot in height. All nests in this region are made exclu- 

 sively of grass and weed-stems. 



