THE OOLOGIST 



61 



NESTING OF THE COOPER'S HAWK 

 IN PHILADELPHIA. 



The Cooper's Hawk is a rare breed- 

 er in Philadelphia, but since the abol- 

 ishment of spring shooting, and the 

 abandonment of many farms during 

 the past several years, this Raptore is 

 increasing here. Previous to 1922 [ 

 had been unable to find but one nest 

 actually in the city limits, but in that 

 year I located three. All of these 

 nests were found in the northeastern 

 part of the city, in thinly settled dis- 

 tricts, and in small woodlots on farms. 

 None of them were any great distance 

 from a farm house. 



I found my first nest in Buzby's 

 Thicket, near Frankford, a large tract 

 of pin oaks, elms, sweet gum and 

 other trees on the clay flats, and on 

 May 7, 1917. It was well in the woods, 

 situated about 40 feet up in a pin oak, 

 and held four fresh eggs. This woods 

 has since been felled, with the ex- 

 ception of a few acres, and was sur- 

 rounded entirely by farm land, a brick 

 yard being closely on the north corner, 

 and a railway ran past it, a few rods 

 distant, on the southwest side. 



During 1922, I found three Cooper's 

 Hawks' nests, viz: Two on May 15, 

 and the third on May 29. The latter, 

 about 70 feet up in a tulip tree, was 

 not afterward visited, it being lined 

 at that late date, and I never went 

 back for it. The two other nests were 

 visited on May 15, and complete sets 

 of three eggs taken from each ; small 

 sets, but absolutely complete, as incu- 

 bation was well advanced in each set. 



The first nest was about 50 feet up 

 in a beech tree in a wood on Penny- 

 pach Creek, Bustleton, and the other 

 was about the same height up in a 

 pin oak in a wood lot near Fox Chase. 

 These sets made the fourth and fifth 

 clutches of three Cooper's Hawk's 

 eggs I had collected during the past 



two years, whereas previously I al- 

 ways had taken complements of four 

 and five eggs. It would appear that 

 the Cooper's Hawks curtailed their 

 sets for some reason. However, I did 

 collect a set of five eggs in April, 1922, 

 for a friend, the only Cooper's Hawk's 

 nest examined containing over three 

 eggs during the past two years. 



These Cooper's Hawks' nests, like 

 all Cooperi nests I have ever exam- 

 ined, were built exclusively by the 

 birds, and none were old crows' nests 

 repaired, as I have read that the 

 Hawks often use old Crows' nests, but 

 never in my experience. 



Richard F. Miller, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



TROPICAL BIRDS. 



By Auston Houston. 



Do you love birds? Then you would 

 enjoy a visit to the tropics. Nowhere 

 will such a variety of the feathered 

 tribe be found as in the forests and 

 jungles of the tropics. Brazil alone 

 has more than sixteen hundred species 

 and most of these are inhabitants of 

 the Amazon Basin. On all sides there 

 are birds that whistle, chirrup, croak, 

 coo, warble, or make discordant cries. 

 Few of them are songsters like our 

 northern birds. Those that do sing 

 are more somber in color than the 

 others, which seems to be an effort 

 toward compensaition. 



Parrots fly over the invaders of 

 these regions in screaming flocks, or 

 alight on the trees and nestle to- 

 gether in loving couples, when their 

 screeching becomes tender chirrup- 

 ings. Most of these birds have beau- 

 tiful feathers, so that one sees flashes 

 of disintegrated rainbows on all sides. 

 Sometimes there are hundreds of 

 birds of many different species to- 

 gether, all moving with the greatest 

 activity. The woodpeckers climb up 



