177 



THE OOLOGIST. 



spherical in shape but having no point- 

 ed end. In color they were yellowish 

 white, marked with blotches of brown. 



I frequently work in plain view of a 

 long ridge of saw mill| debris which 

 lies along the bank of the Wabash and 

 furnishes breeding and hiding places 

 for all the rats in the county. This 

 was a favorite hunting ground for 

 Sparrow Hawks and consequently a 

 popular resort for all the sportsmen 

 and workmen in Vincennes who vied 

 with each other in their attempts to 

 kill these useful birds. .When unmo- 

 lested the mode of hunting pursued by 

 the Sparrow Hawk was interesting. 

 Poised two hundred feet or more above 

 the rubbish pile he would beat against 

 the wind without changing his posi- 

 tion. At length sighting some victim 

 which I could not see he would drop 

 like a stone to within perhaps twenty 

 feet of the ground. Stopping for an in- 

 stant to correct his aim he would make 

 another dart and then would rise again. 

 Often as he rose I would hear a faint 

 squeal which proclaimed that his din- 

 ner was secured and that there was 

 one rat less. 



I have frequently heard it said that 

 Sparrow Hawks make entertaining 

 pets, but my limited experience with 

 them has done little to corroborate this. 



An acquaintance once persuaded me 

 to climb to the top of a high cedar on 

 his premises and I'ob a crow's nest for 

 liim. When I reached the nest I found 

 it contained four eggs, the usual num- 

 ber with the Crow, but they were not 

 the property of the original builder of 

 the nest. A Sparrow Hawk had pre- 

 empted the claim, and instead of im- 

 proving and repairing the dilapidated 

 last, year's structure had tilled it up, 

 covering the Crow's warm lining of 

 cedar bark with a layer of twigs. Why 

 the misguided bird should have pre- 

 ferred a rough, fiat surface to a smooth 

 hollow one vyas an unsolved mystery 

 but there were her eggs, all covei'ed 



with dots and confluent blotches of 

 reddish brown on a yellowish cream 

 colored ground. 



This was the only bird's nest I ever 

 robbed, and it was with many twinges 

 of conscience that I wrapped the eggs 

 in cotton and lowered them to the 

 ground in a sack. Only one of the eggs 

 could be pursuaded to hatch and the 

 one little Hawk was brought up by 

 hand. Patience and kindness had no 

 eflfect on his stony heart. Perhaps it 

 was his having been hatched in an in- 

 cubator and brought up in ignorance of 

 the retining influence of a mother's 

 early love that made him the depraved 

 little wretch that he was. 



However this may be he made life a 

 burden for his friends and room-mates 

 for six months, and then he was liber- 

 ated. When at liberty he showed that 

 he either entertained some friendly 

 feelings for his former owner or that 

 familiarity with man had made him 

 bold, for he made the barnyard of his 

 old jailor his hunting ground, and was 

 fast ridding the place of vermin when 

 he was shot by a trespassing gunner. 

 I draw no conclusion but merely sug- 

 gest that there may be food for thought 

 in the circumstance that the man who 

 killed this Hawk is now serving a term 

 in the State prison for larceny. 



When climbing dead trees and de- 

 cayed snags in search of information in 

 a very dift'erent line I have occasionally 

 found the nests of Sparrow Hawks in the 

 holes excavated by Woodpeckers, a cir- 

 cumstance which at first surpi'ised me, 

 for the reach of the Hawk's wings had 

 led me to believe that it was much larg- 

 er than even the Melanerpes erylkrocc- 

 phalus. 



On one occasion I found a Sparrow 

 Hawk's nest, in the jagged cleft of a 

 large cottonwood which had been 

 blighted by lightning. 



My experience would seem to indi- 

 cate that these birds are the latest 

 breeders of all the I'aptorial birds nest- 



