THE OSPREY. 



The male is quite an ardurous lover 

 ;incl very dem<jnstrative in his advances. 

 With his head thrown back, wing-s hang-- 

 ing-, and tail spread, he will, with very 

 hig-h steps, strut around his lady love 

 and proceed to make an impression. If a 

 rival appears on the scene he will duck 

 his head and with drag-g^ing wings im- 

 mediately drive the intruder away. 



The cry of the Spotted Sandpiper con- 

 sists of a plaintive whistle resembling the 

 words "peet-weet.'" 



This bird does not g-o in very large 

 Hocks and is g^enerally accompanied by 

 the Least Sandpiper, that is, when found 

 on the river. But it is g-enerally solitary 

 when found feeding- on small streams or 

 ponds. 



Nesting of the Ferruginous Rough^'leg, 



( . I rrhihutco fcrnio-ijiciis.. ) 

 BY p:. s. kolfe, minnrwaukan, n. d. 



THIS g-reat hawk is one of the earli- 

 est spring- arrivals in the Devil's 

 Lake reg-ion, and, like the Bald 

 Eag-le, which in shape and demeanor it 

 sugg-ests, its nesting- beg-ins often before 

 the winter's snow has quite disappeared, 

 and in the midst of bleak and chilling- 

 influences that oug-ht naturally to dis- 

 courag-e its efforts till softer conditions 

 prevail. However, the majority display 

 a sounder judg-ment by delaying opera- 

 tions till the last of April or first of Mji}-, 

 at which latter date the collector ma}' 

 confidently look for completed sets. If 

 the nesting- is later 1 am ccmvinced that 

 some accident has been responsible, for I 

 note that the later sets almost uniformly 

 contain but three eg-gs instead of the 

 larger complement of four, sug-g-esting 

 that an earlier set may, possibly, have 

 been lost, and that nature was hardly 

 equal to the producing- of so larg-e a sec- 

 ond set. 



In some neighborhoods in the same 

 g-eneral reg-ion it would seem that this 

 species nest habitually in trees; in others 

 the sites chosen are bare, bleak, stone- 

 covered hills, so strong- seems to be the 

 instinct to follow a community fashion. 



Within five miles of this point is a big 

 basin of irregular shape and covering- 

 thousands of acres that once formed part 

 of Devil's Lake, along- the edges or 

 "shore line" of which stands an occa- 



sional lone box-elder or elm tree of scrub- 

 by appearance and from ten to twenty 

 feet in height. In winter, when stripped 

 of their foliage, the majority of these 

 trees, as they rise from the white expanse 

 of snow, disclose the roug-h nest of sticks 

 that is to 1)e utili/ced first by the Ferru- 

 g-inous Roug-h-leg, or, if not, then a lit- 

 tle later by the Swainson's Hawk. There 

 is little that is distinctive in the structure 

 of these nests. They would pass indif- 

 ferently for those of any hawk, crow or 

 Long-Eared Owl, and one that is especial- 

 ly conspicuous and has been a landmark 

 hereabouts for many years is fully three 

 feet deep and correspondingly hug-e every- 

 way, and was, doubtless, in an earlier 

 day, the home of a Bald Eag-le. From 

 this latter two sets of Ferruginous have 

 been taken this year; the first, an incom- 

 plete set of two, being- tiiken and female 

 shot for identification on April 17th, and 

 the second set (of three eg-g-s, incubation 

 perceptible, ) on May zf.th, clearly indicat- 

 ing- the popularity of this nest, reoccu- 

 pied, as it must have been, by a fresh 

 pair immediately after the first despoil- 



But the distinctive nest of this species, 

 in this reg-ion at least, is placed on the 

 g-round on the summit, or well up the 

 side, of a hill that is crowned with stone 

 and boulders, or along- the verg-e of some 

 stiff g-orge throug-h which a coulee finds 

 its way. If on the summit of the hill, it 

 is invariably enclosed and held in place 

 by boulders, and if up the side of the hill, 

 a jutting boulder forming- a natural shelf 

 is selected to sta}' the bulky, loosely-con- 

 structed nest in place. The nest material 

 is uniformly sticks varying- in size from 

 that of a twig^ to one an inch or more in 

 diameter and of all leng-ths suitable, well 

 intertwined together, often, with one or 

 more bleached buffalo bones. The lining- is 

 of turf, bunches of dried g-rass with roots 

 adhering, well dried "cow chips" and the 

 like, and the whole forms a structure sugf- 

 g-esting that of the eagle as usually de- 

 picted in old-time illustrations, and, aside 

 from its exposure to attack by small ani- 

 mals, somewhat superior to the average 

 tree nest. 



It seems a rare thing- to find fresh nests 

 occupied less than a mile or more apart, 

 so that one undertaking- to personal I3' 

 collect a large series of sets of this species 

 will find it necessary to travel many weary 



