76 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 18-N0. 5 



Nest of the Sharp shinned Hawk. 



This species is rather a rare resident in 

 the vicinity of Listowel or any other part of 

 Ontario that I have visited ; and though it 

 is recorded as " abundant " in British Col- 

 umbia, and as being " partially migratory," 

 yet it did not come under my observations 

 during my passage through, and short resi- 

 dence in, that " sea of mountains." How- 

 ever, every season since I began recording 

 my avi faunian observations a few of the 

 species have been noted every season in this 

 vicinity, chiefly in the summer months, and 

 occasionally in the months of February and 

 March. And in my earlier days, in Peel and 

 North Wallace, I had noted it as one of the 

 worst enemies of small birds, wild and tame 

 pigeons, and young domestic fowls. Accord- 

 ing to my observations, the favorite habitat 

 of this species is thick swamp woods, being 

 but seldom seen in the more open, hard- 

 wood timbered lands ; though, if it has a 

 nesting home in some neighboring swamp, it 

 often is seen hovering, kite like, over the 

 the tree tops, or dashing swiftly across the 

 fields in quest of prey. Again it may be 

 seen, on a mid-summer day, going through 

 the trees of an orchard, seeking for the nests 

 of small birds as a small bird would do in 

 search of insects, and when it has discovered 

 the whereabouts of a flock of young chickens 

 it will revisit the place, day after day, until 

 it has appropriated every individual to its 

 own special use or that of its young, unless 

 the mother hen becomes doubly watchful, or 

 a period is put to its marauding with the 

 contents of a shotgun. Its nesting place is 

 generally in some thickly timbered swampy 

 evergreen wood. Some ten years ago I dis- 

 covered a nest with four eggs of this species ; 

 I afterwards described it in " The Canadian 

 Sportsman and Naturalist." This nest, which 

 was quite a bulky affair and composed wholly 

 of the small dry branches of tamarac, was 

 placed in a cedar tree, about thirty feet off 

 the ground. Since then no other occupied 



nest of this bird had been discovered till the 

 summer of 1891, when I became aware that 

 a nest containing the young of this species 

 was situated in a piece of deep swamp near 

 the northeast corner of Wildwood, but being 

 desirous that the birds would return and nest 

 again in the vicinity, I did not disturb them 

 or even go in to see the exact position of 

 the nest. 



On the 30th of April, 1892, as I was doing 

 some work near by, and on the alert to catch 

 every sight and- sound of bird life that effected 

 my surroundings, the notes of some bird that 

 seemed strange to me came out from the 

 centre of the swamp, and for some time I 

 was at a loss to know what species could be 

 their author. At length a Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk, flying across an open in the wood 

 and uttering similar notes, revealed the mys- 

 tery of cause and effect. I had made a dis- 

 covery ; these were the love and nesting notes 

 of a female Sharp Shin, and she was about 

 to nest in the same vicinity where I knew 

 that the species had nested the previous 

 summer, so I resolved to watch proceedings ; 

 and three or four days after, as the notes still 

 continued to be heard, I went in to investi- 

 gate. .'\s I approached the place where the 

 hawk was perched, she flew towards and 

 over me, darting out her claws and repeating 

 her wkack, -whack, iv/iacks, and tzvecf, 

 tweet, tweets, in her most wrathful manner, 

 and then flew to a short distance, where she 

 continued to exercise her voice from a higher 

 standpoint. 



After considerable search I discovered a 

 large nest in a cedar tree about 20 feet off 

 the ground, to which I climbed up, but 

 found that it was evidently the nest occupied 

 by the Hawk last year ; and thinking that it 

 might be again occupied, I left, and a week 

 later returned, and found that no repairing 

 had been done ; so I concluded that she 

 must have a new nesting site nearer the 

 place where I first discovered her, and which 

 she still continued to occupy ; and after a 

 closer looking into the tops of the neighbor- 



