76 



THE OSPREY 



3^. 



7Y^/ 



RED-SHOULDERED HAWK — BY LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES. 

 From ' Birdcraft.' Copyright by the Macmillan Co. 



above detailed, we may infer that /'ico/i/cs aii/ei-icaitiis 

 usually lays four eggs, that the set is seldom com- 

 pleted before the 4th or 5th of June, and that the 

 nest is ordinarily placed lower than that of most 

 Woodpeckers. It would seem reasonable to assume, 

 also, that the bird is addicted to nesting very near if 

 not over water, but it should be remembered that in 

 the wild and difficult regions which this Woodpecker 

 inhabits, the water ways are the paths most frequently 

 followed by man and that nests of all kinds are 

 oftener sought and very much more easily found 

 about the shores of rivers and lakes than in the 

 depths of the forest. Moreover, if I am not mis- 

 taken in my recollection, Dr. Merriam once told me 

 that the abundance of this and other Woodpeckers 

 at the Fulton Lakes in 1883 was exceptional, and 

 evidently due to the fact that immense numbers of 

 trees, killed years before by the artificial raising of 

 the water, had reached that precise stage of decay 

 which made them most attractive to the Wood- 

 peckers both for feeding and nesting purposes. 

 Under similar conditions, about certain of the 



Ffangeley Lakes I have seen Woodpeckers breeding 

 in truly remarkable numbers. .Vmong the other 

 species I have repeatedly found the Arctic Three- 

 toed Woodpecker (Picoidt's irii/irits) but never /'. 

 aiiit-ritainis. The true home of the latter in northern 

 New England, if I may judge by personal experience 

 and such information as had been furnished me by 

 trappers and gatherers of spruce gum, to many of 

 whom the bird is perfectly well known, is the dense 

 evergreen forests on the upper slopes of the moun- 

 tains. Here, in solitudes difficult of access and 

 seldom or never visited by an ornithologist, this in- 

 teresting and attractive bird breeds far more com- 

 monly than is usually supposed. Not that it is any- 

 where really numerous or conspicuous, for each in- 

 dividual (or pair) claims a wide range of forest as 

 its exclusive hunting ground, and a creature so 

 silent and slow of motion may easily escape observa- 

 tion among the matted foliage of the spruces and 

 balsams. But a vigorous walker — or rather climber 

 — familiar with its habits and notes need not look for 

 it long in vain on any of our northern mountains. 



