"THE OSPREY. 



49 



from Hawks in their soaring- flig-ht. Their 

 manner of alig^hting" was interesting- to 

 me, for they soar down straight toward 

 the spot where they wish to alight, fol- 

 h)wing- a long- oblique line, moving- with 

 unmoving- wing-s until about to alight, 

 when they erect the bod}- and give several 

 flaps with their lengthy wing-s, thus 

 breaking the force of their oblique des- 

 cent as they thrust forward their long- 

 leg-s. At first thoug-ht I believed that 

 there must be a heronry in the vicinity, 

 and I made another excursion to the 

 vicinity to locate it if any existed, but 

 the birds were probably simply using- the 

 locality as a feeding- g-round, for it is 

 well-known that the Herons frequently 

 feed many miles from the heronry. 

 Across the lake a flock of the beautiful 

 American Eg-rets were also feeding-, mov- 

 ing- about with some animation until our 

 appearance startled them into flig-ht. 

 There were about twenty- in the g-roup, 

 and as they rose hig-her in their circles 



around the lake, their white mantles g-lis- 

 tened in the strong- sunlig-ht. Unlike the 

 Herons, they kept well tog-ether, more 

 like the American Bitterns when startled 

 from their feeding--grounds, and circled 

 the pond several times before they drifted 

 like a white cloud over the trees enclosing- 

 the basin, and we saw them no more. 



From the numerous specimnes of Wood 

 Duck seen along- Mud Lake, 'I believe 

 that a search for their nests would have 

 been profitable, as the timber surround- 

 ing- contained many sites acceptable 

 to them, but lack of time on this trip 

 prevented our looking for their nests. 

 Over in Grass Lake we found nests of the 

 King- Rail, and saw American Bitterns 

 in numbers (comparatively), but did not 

 stumble on any nests of the species there. 

 The marg-ins of the lake furnished g-ood 

 sites for Pied-billed Grebes, and some 

 g-ood nests of this species were found. 

 And now ye editor says I have written 

 too much already. 



My Marsh Hawk Finds. 



BY KEV. P. B. PEABODY. 



Continued.) 



□ n the third of June, of the current 

 season, while searching-, near St. 

 Vincent, for nests of the ^ lay-colored 

 Sparrow, among- the rose-bestudded, wil- 

 low-dotted and poplar-thicket-bordered 

 meadows, I saw a female Marsh Hawk 

 fly rapidly into a rather distant poplar 

 and burr-oak bluft' and disappear. 

 Allig-ning- the spot, hastily, by two inter- 

 vening burr-oak shrubs, I soug-ht the 

 spot at my leisure; and found it to be a 

 fairly dense g-rowth on a sort of island, 

 surrounded by meadows that were but 

 partially over-flowed. 



I had bareh' touched the bush}' tract 

 when the unusually obstreperous female 

 pounced upon me. 



Her chief anxiety seemed to center at 

 about the middle and the densest part of 

 the bluff; but I could find nothing. 



Repeatedly, as she swept away, for a 

 space , I ran and hid in the thickest 

 g-rowths; but her hawk-eye ever ferreted 

 me out. Twice, her indifferent spouse 

 came near, and vouchsafed a lazy chat- 

 terinir for one brief moment: merely I 



thought, in compliment of madame's 

 bravery. 



Amid the alternate searching-sand hid- 

 ing-s, I suddenly lost both birds, the 

 female vanishing- in my immediate neig-h- 

 borhood. 



Making straig-ht for the thickest of the 

 poplar clumps, I roused her, a few feet 

 from where I had already been. She rose 

 straig-ht up, for twenty feet, from a four- 

 foot open g-rassy space among- the poplars. 

 Here in a rather slight nest of scanty 

 weeds and plenty of fine grass, lay five 

 plain egg-s, which contained embryos. 

 Wishing- to photograph the bird, in her 

 downward swooping, I left the eg-g-s, 

 having first slightly drawn the contents 

 through small pin holes. One eg-g-, 

 badly nest-cracked, was removed. 



Many duties delayed my return for ten 

 days. Then, as I approached, with 

 camera set, on June 13, at 4 p. m., I was 

 amazed to find that one eg-g- had hatched 

 that very morning-. The physiognomy 

 of that hapless g-aping hawk-chick is 

 shown imperfectly in the illustration 



