THE OSPREY. 



37 



arms were welcoming-, for many years, 

 the whilom Kag^le who strayed that way, 

 or the frequent Blue Heron, that rested 

 thus, beside his tishing--o-rounds, before 

 returning- to his rookery among- the pines, 

 a score t)f miles distant. 



On the farther slope of this hill there 

 lived, probably for many years, a pair of 

 Marsh Hawks. I faintly remember still 

 how often and how serenely they were 

 wont t(i circle the hill-top, hig-h in air; 

 and I well recall the ecstatic wonder I 

 once felt at seeing- one parent drop its 

 prey from a g-reat heig-ht above the hill, 

 the mate so defth' catching- it a hundred 

 feet below and hurrying- nestward to 

 divide the spoil. 



Of my six nest-finds the first was ac- 

 cidental; the third deliberately planned, 

 while the rest are "incidental," so to say. 



On May 27, of '94, in Steele county, 

 Minn., I was searching- amid a drizzling- 

 rain, for something- oolog-ical. In cross- 

 ing- a triang-ular, acre-larg-e bit of willow 

 and-coarse-g-rass waste, at marg-in of a 

 field, among- burr oak g-roves, I started 

 a rather pale female marsh-hawk while 

 I was yet one hundred feet from her ex- 

 ceptionally well made nest of rose stems 

 and weed stocks and g-rass, built up a 

 few inches from the water-g-irt spot of 

 hig-her g-round that stood nearly hig-hest 

 of all the waste, among- thick weeds and 

 g-rass. 



The eg-g-s were very dirty; but the 

 final nail-brush application revealed in 

 the set one spotted. Early in that same 

 May, while returning- from a Krider's 

 Hawk search, I drove across lots, strik- 

 ing- the marg-in of a closely cropped dry 

 marsh of some seventy acres, lyings low 

 among- the fields and brush land. As my 

 eye rem across the meadow a female 

 Marsh Hawk flew across it with marvel- 

 lous quickness, but a few feet from the 

 g-round. Almost before I had seen her, 

 she disappeared, on the g-round near the 

 middle of the marsh where there was no 

 other covert than an occasional smart- 

 weed, left by the cattle. In two weeks I 

 went to find the nest and take the set. 

 I walked almost directly to the nest, 

 which was built heavily, thoug-h on dry 

 g-round, of coarse weeds and g-rass. It 

 was entirely unconcealed. But all that 

 the skunks or coons had left of the eg-g's 

 was a sing-le unmarked shell. 



In the latter part of May, '94, a voung- 

 man in the school at Wilder, Jackson 

 county, Minn., reported to me from the 

 U-shaped marsh (luite near the school, a 

 nest, each of Mallard Duck and of a hawk, 

 both nests being- in the coarse g-rass well 

 out in the marsh. The hawk nest was, 

 of course, that of a C/fcas, the eg-irs be- 

 ing- unmarked and rather unusually 

 g-reenish, and the incubation nearly com- 

 plete. Expecting- to be a frequenter of 

 that marsh during- the season of '95, 1 

 made a mental note of my young- friend's 

 untimely find. 



Averag-ing- book dates with those per- 

 sonally known, I sauntered out and down, 

 throug-h steep hill-sides, to that marsh 

 on May 27 of the following- spring-. 

 Passing- b}- as, "unlikely" the sphag-num 

 tracks with their bog's tufted with suc- 

 culent g-rass and the one limited area of 

 cat-tail flag-s, I crossed to the undulating- 

 weedy marg-in; and, on a little promon- 

 tory, beg-an to search. 



My pride of nidolog-ical acumen was 



LITTLE BLUK HKKON ( VOUNC I'KO.M I.Il'K.j 



