244 LIFE HISTOEIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



"Though usually a sluggish bird,- they will at times show considerable 

 courao-e and dash at au intruder. I have noticed two such instances. Once, 

 while I was in a tree watching a Swallow-tailed Kite, a male Broad-winged 

 Hawk which was guarding a nest fought another bird of this species, driv- 

 ing and pursuing it a great distance. Then suddenly it turned back and 

 almost struck me in the face as it came on with arrow-like swiftness." 



Mr. H. H. Brimley, of Raleigh, North Carolina, found a nest of this 

 species, containing two fresh eggs, and sent me an accurate description of it, 

 made before it was removed from the tree. It was taken on April 25, 1890, 

 and is thus desciibed: "It was placed in a small pine in original woods, 

 about 38 feet from the ground. About (3 feet from the top of the tree the main 

 trunk ended in five wide spreading limbs. At the junction of these limbs 

 the uest was Ijuilt in the crotch. The nest itself was the roughest kind of 

 platform, made entirely of oak sticks, not a single stick of any other kind 

 being used. It was lined with a good sized doul)le handful of pieces of bark 

 from large yellow pines, flat, thin, and smooth scales, not the roug-lier, thicker 

 bark found on younger trees. This bark lining was 4 or f) inches deep in 

 the center of the nest; a very few twigs with green leaves of both pine 

 and oak were scattered throngh the structure apparently accidentally. The 

 bark center of the nest went right down to the limbs of the ci'otch support- 

 ing it. The depth of the depression was more than that in a nest of Biiteo 

 I'meatm, and the whole nest was much rougher and looser than any of those 

 of the latter I have ever seen. No attempt at using any soft lining had 

 been made. While I was up in the tree taking the eggs and making these 

 notes tlie old birds soaring high above gave vent to notes much like those 

 of the Killdeer." 



Mr. J. C. Cairns, of Weaverville, North Carolina, took a set of three 

 eggs of this species on April 25, 1890, and kindly sent me the nest, which 

 Avas placed in the forks of a large oak tree about 56 feet from the ground. 

 Considering the size of the bird the nest is lai'ge and a somewhat loosely 

 built structure. Its outer diameter is 19 by 13 inches; depth, 9 inches; the 

 inner cavity appeal's to have been shallow and not over 3 inches deep, if 

 so much. It is principally composed of small oak twigs, and among these 

 a few slender pine tips are mixed. The lining consists of thin pieces of 

 pine bark scales. Mr. Cairns says: "In this portion of North Carolina they 

 usually nest on a wooded ridge or at the foot of a mountain, never on or 

 near the top of these, and they return each year to the same localities to 

 breed, nearly always building a neyv nest each season. Occasionally they 

 make use of an old Crow's nest, or one abandoned by some other IlaAvk. 

 As a rule they nest in somewhat lower situations than the majority of Rap- 

 tores, and now and then so low that the nest can be reacheil from the 

 ground." 



Mr. George Gr. Cantwell, of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, writes me that he 

 found one of their nests in the crotch of a large tree, only 3 feet from the 

 ground. From 25 to 30 feet up is perhaps a fair average. 



