36 



THE OOLOGIST. 



"the bird has left the nest," for she liid 

 leave it the moment I put my hand en 

 her, and I spopped the nest, leaving the 

 eggs in till morning for fear someone 

 might find they were warm. Next 

 morn I was tirst fellow out and of course 

 I found "the eggs cold." But my 

 "feathers fell" when I got home and 

 found the eggs ready to hatch and the 

 shells so tender I could not save one 

 whole. I have learned not to covet my 

 neighbor's property. 



It is now nearly spring, Feb. 1st and 

 a few days more will find the Robins 

 and Bluebirds northward bound and 

 crocusses will soon be open. 



C. E. Pleas, 

 Clinton, Ark. 



Hawk Flights Noticed at Lake Forest, 111. 



My attention was first called to these 

 Hawk flights in the fall of 1893. I did 

 not make any notes on the flight of 

 this year; but remember that the Coop- 

 ers Hawks {AccipUer cooperi) predom- 

 inated in it and it took place while a 

 strong wind was blowing. The next 

 fall while out walking one blustering 

 windy day I again noticed large num- 

 bers of hawks flying quite high over- 

 head. Unfortunately they were too far 

 off and too high up to distinguish with 

 certainty but the slender body, the long 

 pointed wings and the graceful flight 

 immediately assured me that the great- 

 er part of them, as was the case the 

 year before, were the Cooper's Hawks. 

 I also noticed some others that resem- 

 bled the Coopers Hawks closely all but 

 for their smaller size; these [ took to be 

 the Sharp-shinned [AccipUer velox ) 

 These two species comprised the great- 

 er part of the flight. Many other varie- 

 ties of the larger hawks however were 

 to be seen but not closely enough to be 

 indentified. No more hawks were notic- 

 ed in any numbers after this one windy 

 day that year. 



This fall of 1895 has favored me with 

 the best opportunity so far of observing 

 the migratious of the hawks. A severe 

 rain and wind storm occured on the 

 night of Sept. The next day. was raw 

 and chilly with a strong wind blowing 

 from the Northwest. From my obser- 

 vations thus far I am lead to believe 

 that the hawks anticipate just such a 

 day as this to migrate on. It was about 

 the middle of the morning before they 

 were noticed in any numbers and they 

 seemed to increase from this on until 

 the middle of the afternoon. It was a 

 very pretty and interesting sight to 

 watch them as they would suddenly 

 come about and careen gracefully to the 

 wind. The Ospreys in particular show- 

 ed themselves off to excellent advantage 

 here, for the pure white under parts 

 and the black on the cheeks and head 

 stood out in bold contrast to each other. 

 Again with set wings they would glide 

 smoothly and swiftly by. These actions 

 were noticed of all the other hawks 

 more or less but none approached the 

 Ospreys in gracefulness and beauty. 

 The Cooper's Hawks again held their 

 own in numbers, as did also the Sharp- 

 shinned. These two species were gen- 

 erally noticed quite near each other but 

 the Piegou Hawks also seemed to have 

 a special desire to be given in company 

 with the latter. A Red-tail is occasion- 

 ally seen sailing high above the rest, 

 holding itself aloof from its smaller 

 relatives; next comes a solitary Red- 

 shouldered, distinguished by its barred 

 wings and tail; then a Broad-winged 

 and a single Marsh Hawk concludes 

 the list that was noticed. They were 

 to gradu illy diminish in numbers to- 

 ward su.idown when a solitary Osprej'' 

 flying sii'^utly and gracefully by marks 

 the close of this unusua ly interesting 

 hawk flight. , 



John F. Fekky. 



