68 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 5 



A Day in the Woods. 



On the afternoon of April 14, 1891, Mr. W. 

 H. Lncas and myself, also accompanied by a 

 companion to drive the team, started about 3 

 P.M. for a large swamp and woods filled with 

 hemlocks as well as oak and chestnut, which 

 goes by the name of Spruce Swamp. We 

 arrived there in about an hour and found a 

 large steam saw-mill set up in the woods and 

 the wood choppers had made sad havoc with 

 the timber. 



On our visit to this place in early March we 

 had found a nest of the Great Horned Owl, 

 and we had entertained a faint hope that she 

 might possibly lay another set of eggs, but 

 we were more particularly after a nest of the 

 Red-shouldered Hawk this time, for we had 

 seen a i)air of birds hovering around on our 

 former visit, but the cho^jpers had driven the 

 birds out of this place, and, although the birds 

 were still around we were unable to find the 

 nest; so had to return to our team, when, after 

 a drive of about half a mile, we left again for 

 another woods, and did not have to hunt long 

 before we discovered the nest. It was in a 

 chestnut about seventy feet high and on a limb 

 projecting about ten feet from the body of the 

 ti'ee, with the female bird on the nest. It was 

 now quite dark and no amount of clubbing or 

 shouting would persuade. her to get off. We 

 determined to start her, so I raised my gun 

 and shot one barrel close to the nest to start 

 her, and olf she jumped. I let the other 

 barrel go after her, but as I am no expert with 

 a gun she continued on her way unharmed, so 

 we were obliged to say good-by to her. Our 

 next problem was, where is the fellow to climb 

 the tree and get the eggs ? I certainly was 

 not desirous of the job, and my companion did 

 not seem to favor the plan of his doing it, so 

 we decided to let her rear her brood in peace, 

 so away we started, and it was now getting 

 pretty dark; and as we went stumbling along 

 we suddenly came upon an old, tumbled-down 

 stone fence. As I was in advance I put one 

 hand on top of the fence and made a jump to 

 clear it, and was somewhat surprised to find 

 myself completely tangled up in one of those 

 most desirable of fences — the barb wire. But, 

 oh! if you could have seen those pantaloons 

 when I finally got clear, you would have 

 smiled. Plenty of ventilation, I tell you: but 

 fortunately that was all the damage, so we 

 made our way as best we could for the team, 

 and after a drive of about a mile we reached 

 my old home, and after putting out our horse 



we repaii'ed to the house and partook of a 

 good supper to which we surely did justice. 

 After making a few preparations for the trip 

 on the morrow and getting my pantaloons 

 adjusted, we retired for the night. 



Early the next morning we were stirring 

 about making the final preparations, eating 

 our breakfast, and we were shortly off for the 

 woods. Nearly the first sound that we heard 

 as we approached the woods was the note of a 

 Louisana Water Thrush, but it was probably 

 well aware of the distance a gun would shoot, 

 and so thought a distant view the most agree- 

 ble, so it made good its escape. Still we 

 pushed on through the woods until we finally 

 saw a respectable looking nest in a chestnut 

 tree just ahead which \\g thought might 

 possibly be a Red-shouldered Hawk's, for we 

 had heard a cry come from that direction; so I 

 strapped on my irons and began to shin the 

 tree, and was repaid with a large handful 

 of rotten leaves and rubbish. 



Then we struck across an opening to the 

 wood on the other side, and soon saw a Crow 

 sitting hard on her nest in a tall chestnut. 

 AVe rapped on the tree for her to get off but 

 she did not respond, so I shot one barrel of my 

 gun about a foot from the nest; but this did 

 not seem to wake her up. My companion (who 

 by the way was rather near-sighted) declared 

 there was no bird on the nest, so to convince 

 him I shot the other barrel into the nest and 

 this moved her and as she llew my companion 

 dropped her, but as the eggs are so common 

 and the tree a hard one to climb we did not 

 get the eggs. 



Then we started out again for another woods 

 about a mile away, and in a short time took 

 our first set of the day. It was that of a Red- 

 shouldered Hawk and contained three rather 

 (lull marked eggs, and unusually small for this 

 species. The nest was very low, not more than 

 twelve or fourteen feet high. 



We then started for our team, for it was 

 quite a long distance to our next piece of 

 woods, which had formerly contained a very 

 large pair of Red-tailed Hawks, but after 

 arriving there and spending over an hour of 

 hard tramping we were obliged to give it up; 

 but, as we were coming around near the nest 

 which was occupied by them last year, we 

 discovered that it was once more occupied, 

 but not by a Hawk, On investigating it 

 proved a Barred Owl: we could plainly see its 

 head and eyes watching us as we manceuvered 

 around throwing clubs, etc., trying to drive 

 her oft"; but she stuck close. 



