36 



THE OSPREY. 



around little limbs of the fork that sup- 

 ports it. In form it is deeper than it is 

 broad, being- somewhat subellipsoidal in 



g-eneral contour. They do not vary 

 much, though one that my son found had 

 a g-ood deal of cotton in its composition. 



My Marsh Hawk Finds. 



BY KEY. P. B. PP:AB0DY. 



The common name of Circus hudsoii- 

 iits, that most, and most widely fa- 

 miliar, of all hawks, is like nearly all 

 names, in part conventional. The bird 

 mig-ht almost as aptly have been called 

 "Hillside" Hawk, "Prairie" Hawk, ''Black 

 Oak-scrub" Hawk, all of the indicated 

 haunts being quite as dear to this bird, 

 apparently, as are the marshes. 



To the many, this bird is merely a 

 hawk; to the "fool-with-a-g-un" a thing 

 to be murdered at ease and without 

 mercy; while, to the trained and observ- 

 ant ornithologist, it is both a public 

 benefactor and a private friend, for one 

 cannot avoid a friendly 

 feeling- toward a bird so 

 useful, so harmless, and 

 so unusually interesting. 

 Among the first of mi- 

 grants he comes to us, in 

 spring. I say "he" ad- 

 visedly, for it is the pearly 

 plumag-ed birds that 

 first appear. Flying- low 

 and fearlessly above the 

 stubble fields, amid the 

 damp, awakening- fresh- 

 ness of the March winds, 

 he pounces suddenl}' upon 

 a too-venturesome mead- 

 ow-mouse; or may be con- 

 tents his empty stomach 

 with a half-thawd garter- 

 snake. 



In a while, his tribe in- 

 creases. The ruddy young- 

 and the faded, rusty fe- 

 males appear. Very soon, 

 apparently, the mating 

 takes place, or the pre- 

 viously-mated birds rejoin 

 each other; and soon each 

 old familiar nook has its 

 pair of Marsh Hawks; for 

 Cirrus is \'ery domestic 

 and very local in his 

 habits. 



This paper will emphasize the upland- 

 dwelling- habits of this so-called and 

 rightly so-called. Marsh-bird, partl}^ be- 

 cause it has been quite largely as a wood- 

 land-hillside dweller that I have known 

 him, and partly because the Marsh Hawks 

 for shrubby uplands is far more charac- 

 teristic than many have realized. 



For example: Just beyond the little 

 birch-girt lake beside which nestles my 

 boyhood home in mid-northern Wisconsin, 

 there stands a high hill clad, in greater 

 part, with scattered clumps of black oak; 

 its very summit crowned once with a 

 single gaunt dead oak, whose outstretched 



NE.ST AND EGt;S OF iMAKSH HAWK. 



