ORNITHOLOGIST 



—AND- 



00L0GI8T. 



Sl.OO per 

 Annum. 



PUBLISHED UY FRANK B. WEBSTER. 



Established, March, 1875. 



Single Copy 

 10 cents. 



Vol. XIV. 



BOSTON, MASS., JUNE, 1889. 



No. 6. 



Easter Hawks' Eggs. 



The semi-religious customs of many lands 

 agree in the observance of Easter as "Egg 

 Sunday," so it was in accordance with the tra- 

 ditions of the day that on April 21, 1889, I 

 broke the record here and took thirty-one eggs 

 of our big liuteos, leaving two sets of incubated 

 borealis and two sets of nest-washed lineatus. 



Though there had been but little ice and no 

 snow, and it had been what is called an open 

 winter, neither owls nor hawks bred a day 

 earlier, for this same ground was gone over 

 April 22, 1888, with about the same result. 

 'J'o do this feat again in 1890, in this oldest 

 settled part of New England, one must have a 

 good horse, a fearless climber, and a thorough 

 knowledge of the country side. He must know 

 the shortest cross-i-oads from patch to patch 

 of woodland, and his acquaintance with locali- 

 ties must include exact information as to the 

 position of last year's nest and the nest of the 

 year before, for, mind you, in nidification, 

 mistress Buteo always has two strings to her 

 bow. To be sure, three wholly new nests 

 were found in unusual sites, but they held no 

 eggs as yet, and I should judge were from 

 hawks driven from their own homes by the 

 portable steam saw- mill which, continuing its 

 murderous work of last year, had levelled their 

 particular groves. 



Another rule for the successful collector is 

 not to do any random climbing, and to leave 

 incubated and nest-stained eggs unless for 

 special reasons. A set of Barred Owls', three 

 weeks incubated, and an incomplete set of 

 lineatus were taken to save the old birds from 

 ambushed farmers. 



While hurrying to one of my surest "finds," 

 you may guess how the elasticity left my feet 

 on meeting a farmer's boy dragging home (nie 

 of my great Bateos, which he had shot on her 

 eggs. It would not matter so much if only 

 the males were shot, the local race would be 



still kept up, but if the pair, or the female, be 

 killed, thenceforward that section would be 

 without Raptores, as we shall soon show. 



The first set of three Red Shouldered Hawks, 

 from Hewitt's Woods, Preston, were in a nest 

 twenty rods from the old tree, and the eggs, 

 in shape and markings, duplicates of last 

 year's clutch of four. The old nest is well 

 preserved, and it is dollars to cents it will be 

 occupied next season. Being comparatively a 

 young hawk, she now lays trios and fours. 



The next set was from an old lineatus that 

 now lays but two. An expert after these base 

 falcons would have known there was one 

 breeding near, without seeing the nest, for 

 every bush within twelve rods of the eyrie 

 held a patch of down from the denuded breast 

 of the sitting female. The present nest was, 

 in a direct line, next tree to last year's home, 

 which will in turn, as we shall see, become the 

 1890 abode. The Hell Gate set proved to be, 

 in design and coloring, a continuation of a 

 long series. 



The Spicer Ledges borealis which, Aj^ril 22, 

 1888, gave the green runt recorded by Mr. 

 Norris in O. &. O. for April, 1889, had a jjair of 

 eggs, normal in size, but preserving the rare 

 tint, in an example of the paper-shell type. 

 This aged female, escaping traps and cold lead 

 in a miraculous way, has bred here continu- 

 ously since 1875, according to my data, alter- 

 nating between two trees in the heart of the 

 woods 40 rods apart. She has for that length 

 of time given abundant evidence of being the 

 self-same hawk, and local tradition has it that 

 one of these two old leaning chestnuts on the 

 ledges for thirty years has held a Redtail's 

 nest. 



Under one nest, from which we fiushed a 

 lineatus, was a black snake's skin with the 

 flesh freshly picked off. This and the two 

 following incidents give a ray of light on the 

 food of the Rapacioe. 



A Barred Owl's nest was lined with feathers 



Copyright, 1889, by Frank B. Webster. 



