103 



THE OOLOGIST. 



igaa collectors go, it follows that the 

 species iufest those quarters where it 

 may tind suitable sites for i-earing 

 youug. It is therefore unusual for a 

 Sparrow Hawk to be seeu in a well peo- 

 pled district and where there are no 

 dead trees, and I believe that the birds 

 are also scarce in unbroken districts, 

 where the woodman's axe has not left 

 its work. At best this is my conclusion. 



About May first, one will see a pair 

 of birds hovering over and about an old 

 stub, or the limb of a girdled tree. In- 

 spection will show that the Woodpeck- 

 ei's have about riddled poi'tions of the 

 trunk and larger limbs. The Hawks 

 are particularly attentive to a large 

 opening, generally the former home of 

 a pair of Flickers, or it often happens 

 that a natural hollow is found, exposed 

 through the breaking off of a limb. 

 After years of exposure to the weather 

 and long, long after the Woodpeckers 

 have sought other and more solid trees, 

 in which to drill their nests, the Spar- 

 I'ow Hawks move into the premises. 

 It is usual for the pair to carry out more 

 or less rubbish in the shape of rotten 

 accumulations, and perhaps the litter 

 and shucks of some miserly red squir- 

 rel's hoard may have partially tilled the 

 cavity. 



Soon the devoted actions of the birds 

 convinces us that the eggs are being 

 laid, a matter in which we are assured 

 after witnessing the periodical absences 

 of the female. Then we decide to col- 

 lect that set, and with climbers in hand 

 and in company with two or three egg- 

 crank companions, a swoop is made on 

 the base of that stub. But the swoop 

 stops as soon as the most anxious one 

 gets a few feet above the base, and as 

 the top of the s ub is seen to quiver like 

 an aspen, the enthusiastic ocHogist scut- 

 tles down aud proclaims that it is not 

 right for him to go up, and that the 

 right way is to draw cuts. The second 

 one thereupon makes a bold bluff, but 

 as soon as the seeming lofty top begins 



to weave about, he descends to terra 

 Jirma with alacrity, and confidently as- 

 serts that he is sure "the eggs haint .all 

 laid yet." The result is that the Spar- 

 row Hawk nests in peace, unless some 

 envious boy brings his blunderbus to 

 bear on one of the old birds, as it perch- 

 es near its eggs, or perhaps the wind 

 brings down the old stub, thus expos- 

 ing demolished home aud broken egg 

 shells. It is always dangerous to at- 

 tempt to secure a set of these eggs, but 

 it is not rarely done by zealous collect- 

 ors, who lack wisdom in their anxiety 

 to supplant a rival in tlie possession of 

 the generally oddly marked eggs. 



I have examined but verj^ few nests 

 throughly, though I have vainly specu- 

 lated upon the interior many times. 

 Very few persons have collected many 

 sets of Sparrow Hawk's eggs, and sev- 

 eral of my fellow collectors whose col- 

 lections embrace scoi'es of sets of sever- 

 al species of Hawks, have but a poor 

 showing with this bird's eggs. Six sets 

 of eggs is the greatest number in any 

 collection in this county. The cavity 

 selected by the Sparrow Hawk is from 

 one to thx'ee feet deep, and the entrance 

 is from a size of a Flicker's hole to sev- 

 en or eight inches across. The eggs 

 are laid as with the Woodpeckers on 

 the bare bottom or perhaps a few chips 

 or parcels of decayed wood. 



Five eggs is the usual number, though 

 six are not rarely found in a setting. 

 The shades and grades of marking are 

 so various that a page might be occup- 

 ied in properly describing them. 



I believe this to be a beneficial species 

 of Falcon, as its food largely consists of 

 the injurious meadow mice, arvieola, as 

 well as grasshoppers in season. It is a 

 beautiful little bird, and I do not know 

 of another species of the family which 

 can compare with it in coloration, or in 

 elegance of form. 



Red-tailed Hawk ok Buzzard, 

 Buteo borealis. This is our larg- 

 est summer visitor among the 



