THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrfitecl VIeigazine of Popular Ornithology. 

 PCihlisherl |VIonthlv exeept in July ar)rt Aayust. 



Volume 111. 



FEBRUARY, 1899 



Number 6. 



Original Articles. 



NOTES FROM NORTH DAKOTA. 

 By EkgknK S. Roi.fe, Minnewaukan. N. Dak. 



ON June 9, 1898, in a narrow valley traversed 

 hv a flowing" coulee and walled in through- 

 out its leng'th by steep, hit;h banks, I dis- 

 covered a bulky nest of sticks, twig's, and coarse 

 dried weed stalks, nine feet up in a bunch of 

 willows g-rowing at the verge of the coulee and 

 directly under its high bank. The sitting bird 

 left her nest as I approached within twenty 

 feet, through the thick brushy undergrowth. 

 Numerous scraps of feathers could be seen 

 caught on the points of the sticks protruding' 

 from the ne.st; and though the appearance of 

 the sitting bird and her mate flying about fairly 



M-- I \ M) E<;GS of IJKr.TED l-IIMNi. i-i"\ 



indicated Swainson's Hawk, yet I thoug'ht I de- 

 tected some unusual features. Furthermore, the 

 eg'gs were four — a most unu.sual number — of a 

 pronounced pyriform shape, and in color gray- 

 ish-white, sparingly spotted and stained with 

 light reddish-brown; one being nearly immacu- 

 late, and one showing, in addition to the stains, 

 numerous shell-marking's of pale lilac. Swain- 

 son's Hawk I have never found to l)e a bird of 

 remarkable spirit, but the male of this pair ex- 

 hibited astonishing nerve, and repeatedly dash- 

 ed at me as I pillaged the nest and packed away 

 the specimens. The shape and number of the 



eggs, the courage and dash of the pair, and cer- 

 tain fancied pecularities of shape and plumag''e 

 made me uncertain of their identity, so I shot 

 the birds, which upon close examination proved 

 to be very nearly normal specimens of Swain- 

 ■son's Hawk [fliitco su'aiiisoiii). 



On June 19, while investigating an occupied 

 nest of Swainson's Hawk in a lone willow bush 

 on a .sandy ridge near Devil's Lake, I discovered 

 a bulky nest of the White-wing'ed Shrike, built 

 of thistle-down, weeds, and bark flbre, and well 

 lined with fine dried grass and feathers. This 

 nest was seven feet up and about three feet be- 

 low that of the Hawk; it con- 

 tained six eg'gs, .sfimewhat ad- 

 vanced in incubation. The sit- 

 ting bird was loath to leave her 

 eggs and did not in fact leave 

 the bush, shifting her position 

 from twig to twig' during all the 

 time I was struggling- up through 

 the thick, tangled branches to 

 both nests. I had noted this 

 species here rarely' in the breed- 

 ing .season, but had not before 

 chanced upon its nest. 



On May 1, while camped in the 

 wild country some fiftj' miles 

 west, a cowboy volunteered to 

 pilot us to some marshes where 

 we were certain to find the Can- 

 ada Goo.se nesting'. He succeeded 

 in his purpose, but as he was 

 the one who chanced upon the 

 only nest found he quickly trans- 

 ferred the six eggs to his hat and, 

 bareheaded, spurred his bronco 

 away to the ranch house, where 

 he speedily got the eggs under a 

 The nest was a bulky down-lined 

 pieces of dried rushes and flags, 

 supported on a platform of broken-down bidl- 

 rushes, in knee-deep water, near the centre of a 

 broad marsh. The male could be seen swim- 

 ming' in a bit of open water, and as we waded 

 toward him the sitting bird left her nest and the 

 pair flew about us, their distress or anger for 

 the time seeming to make them fearless. 



Next day, relieved of the doubtful assistance 

 of the cowbo}', we performed the feat of dis- 

 covering three occupied nests of the Canada 

 Goose, and one of the Sand-hill Crane, inside of 



sitting hen. 

 structure of 



