•3 74 



THE OOLOGIST. 



second set Ma^' eighteeuth. About 

 April lifteeath is the best date for col- 

 lecting the eggs. Sometimes, but sel- 

 dom found in dry oak woods, but al- 

 ways near marshy ground." 



The nest of the Red shouldered Hawk 

 is easily found. It is built after the 

 jiianner of the structure of the Red-tail 

 and is indistinguishable from it when 

 viewed from the ground. There are 

 ;Some collectors who claim that the 

 nests of the two spebies can always be 

 told apart, but I must confess that I 

 Jtiave been unable to distinguish the 

 species from nests alone. However it 

 is usually not difficult to decide, if the 

 nest is in high oak woods and. contains 

 ■onlv^ two large eggs, that the structure 

 belongs to the Red- tail. Again, if the 

 nest is in low woods and contains three 

 or four smaller eggs, it is fair to judge 

 that the Red-shoulder owns them. 

 Nevertheless, I have seen sets of these 

 -eggs of the Red-shouldered Hawk which 

 were larger than three eggs from one 

 nest of the Red-tail. And too, the Red- 

 tail often selects the e.xact locality 

 chosen by the smaller Buzza'/d. There- 

 fore a collector must be careful and not 

 rely too fully on shape, size or colora- 

 tion of eggs, or locality of nest. I do 

 not doubt that many collections, some 

 of which belong to renowned collectors, 

 are supplied with sets of Buzzard's eggs 

 which are improperly labelled. 



Many eggs of this Hawk are very 

 beautiful and the markings in vai'ious 

 shades of brown and i"ed are pleasing 

 to the eye. The variations in colora- 

 tion and markings are much greater 

 than in the eggs of the Red-tail, and it 

 is needless to describe them. 



A ti'ip after the eggs of the Red- 

 shouldered Buzzard is a most interest- 

 ing expedition, and if made in the I'ight 

 locality cannot fail to be productive of 

 good results, particularly if one of the 

 party is an experienced collector and 

 fearless climber. It is best to go into 

 the woods in March and watch the 



birds inteut on selecting a nesting site, 

 as they are very noisy and active at 

 that time. Having located several 

 pairs of birds, the proper unaertaking 

 is to visit the woods regularly and keep 

 track of the progress the birds are mak- 

 ing in nest building or repairing and 

 incubating. 



A collector who has plenty of time to 

 to devote to the work should have bril- 

 liant success and I feel safe in saying 

 that there are several collectors in this 

 city who could, if unhampered, and no 

 others to bother them, collect a hund- 

 red eggs of this Hawk alone, in addi- 

 tion to other collecting in a season. 



It is however rare indeed that a col- 

 lector is free of all duties; for school 

 work engages the attention of the most 

 of the collectors at a time when the 

 Hawk's egg-harvest is in season, and 

 with the older ones the duties of busi- 

 ness demand attention. From these 

 causes but veiy few days are spent in 

 the woods by the enthusiasts around 

 here. I know several young fellows of 

 this vicinity who have collected for 

 years. One of them was a painter, one 

 a tinner, a machinest, college student, 

 etc. Available days for collecting were 

 few, and generall^^ the time between 

 Saturda3' night and Monday moi'niug 

 was selected for long trips, while the 

 eyries near to town were visited after 

 the work of the week day. Of course 

 all of the ground could not be covered 

 in one day even though the collectors 

 set out in different directions. 



Many ai"e the yarns I have heard and 

 many good jokes were played on the 

 unlucky ones. It was not rare that 

 one egg-crank would rob a Buzzard's 

 nest which was fondly considered hid- 

 den by another crank who expected, to 

 take the eggs. When crank No. 1 at 

 last climbed the tree he found a note 

 pinned in the nest by crank No. 2 which 

 informed crank No. 1 that he was a 

 trifle late as some one had been there 

 before him. 



