THE OSPREY. 



miles over the rouj^-hest country. Either 

 alone, or in company with J. K. Craig^ue, 

 of this place, I have this si>rin<4- pretty 

 thoroujjfhly covered a strij) of coimtrv 

 something- over forty miles in leng-th 1)y 

 from eig-ht to fifteen miles in width, and 

 consuming- a total of at least two weeks, 

 with the result of finding- about twenty- 

 tive nests containing eg'g"s. 



I think it no exag-g-eration to state that 

 this necessitated fully 500 miles of travel 

 and the examination of, i)erhaps, 2oo 

 nests, most of which were old and unoc- 

 cupied, for I do not discover much evi- 

 dence that on the hills an old nest is re- 

 paired and reoccupied, though the loca- 

 tion of the old nest is often, apparently, 

 very satisfactory, and a new nest is likely 

 to be placed near by. On the whole, I 

 should say that the wild, stony hills to 

 the west and south, sterile and uninviting-, 

 and, as yet, but little invaded by settlers, 

 offer the conditions most acceptable to 

 this majestic species, and most in keeping- 

 with its character. 



But the Ferrug-inous Roug-h-leg-, like 

 any other species, is capable of achieving- 

 the unconventional and unexpected. On 

 April 27th, I discovered a pair busily en- 

 gag-ed in constructing- the nest shown in 

 the illustration. It was located on the 

 verg-e of a stiff, rocky bench — once a shore 

 line — and overlooking- a shallow, barren 

 little valley on the west of the Devil's 

 Lake Indian Reserve, and scarcely fifty 

 yards from the railroad track over which 

 heavy trains were passing- daily, and at a 

 spot where the section crew were busily 

 eng-ag-ed repairing- track and culverts 

 damag-ed by the spring- floods. 



During- the process of the construction 

 of the nest and the depositing- of the set 

 I repeatedly visited the vicinity, and 

 found the pair so accustcmied to the sig-ht 

 of man that my presence scarcely dis- 

 turl)ed them, and altogx'ther I spent some 

 hours there watching their oj)erations, 

 often within a short stone's toss of one or 

 both as they flew about or settled on the 

 burned prairie surrounding- the spot and 

 boldly stared at me. 



On May lOth Mr. Craig-ue found a set 

 of four eg-g-s in a somewhat carelessly 

 constructed nest of the usual materials 

 on the straw-covered roof of an aban- 

 doned stal)le near a well travelled road 

 and within easy distance of stony hills or 

 lone trees usually selected by this species. 



On May *»th I took a tine, well-marked 

 set of four from a similar nest on top of 

 an old straw stack in the midst of a stub- 

 blefu'ld surrounded l)v low, stone-covered 

 hills that, apparently, offered much more 

 characteristic nestings sites. 



Identification is rarely difficult to one 

 familiar with the characteristic features 

 of the species since, as incubation com- 

 nu'nces with the depositing- of the first 

 egg, the female sits close and rises care- 

 fully from the nest when disturbed, gen- 

 erally hesitating- an instant after gaining 

 the edg-e of the nest and before taking 

 wing. Usually, also, she aligdits within 

 full view, and is often joined by her mate, 

 g-enerally to ])e discovered close at hand. 

 P^urthermore, if my observation has been 

 accurate, the pair never make any outcry 

 whatever at the time of the breaking- up 

 of their nest, preservinji^ throughout tlieir 

 air of proud superiority in silence. Tlie 

 female shot at the nest, as spoken of 

 above, was simply wing-ed, and broug-ht 

 to me in perfect condition otherwise, and 

 I kept it alive in the yard about my house 

 for nearly four days. It utterly refused 

 food of the kind ordinarily most tem])t- 

 ing- to a member of the family of Raptorcf., 

 fresh meat, g-opher, jack-rabbit, duck vis- 

 cera and mice, being- all rejected with 

 silent disdain, and its demeanor through- 

 out was sug-g-estive of sullen thoug-h im- 

 potent defiance. Its death by starvation 

 being- only a matter of time, I thoug-ht it 

 mercy to hasten it with my gfun. 



As to the numl)er of eggs constituting 

 a full set, I think it would be safe to say 

 that three are as often to be met with as 

 four, and as I have never taken a set of 

 less than three showing- sig-ns of incuba- 

 tion, I assume that one or two is never a 

 full set, th(mgh on May 1st I flushed a 

 female from her nest containing- one in- 

 differently marked egg-, and, leaving it, 

 returned on the .^d to find her still sitting 

 on the lone eg-g-. It was inferior in both 

 measurement and marking, and. uj)on 

 l)lowing-, it proved to be addled. 



The eg-g-s in the illustration* were about 

 2.20x1.85 inches, whereas I had not ]>re 

 viously taken an eg-g- of this species un- 

 der 2.30 in length. Had I chanced wy^m 

 this set in a tree without seeing- the own- 

 ers I should have i;y/cssc'(/ it to belong to 

 the Swainson, thoug-h,on the other hand, 

 I have re])eatedly taken eg-g-s of the 

 Swainson fullv as larg-e as the averag-e of 



