1S4 



THE OOLOGIST. 



cavity, which was some five inches in 

 depth, the Ijirds had phiced a large 

 quantity of loose wood fibres for a nest. 



There was such a large quantity of 

 them that at first I thought the excava- 

 tion was only two or three inches deejj. 



This mass of fibres, Avith an occasion- 

 al feather, formed a soft flutfy cushion 

 and the eggs, which were a vei'y light 

 cream, spotted with reddish brown, were 

 partially covered by the ends of the fibres 

 which overlapped them. As the bird 

 was entirely new to me, I was forced to 

 shoot one, which proved to be the male, 

 to make identification certain. 



I had no trouble iu tracing him by 



"Coues" and I now have the satisfaction 



of possessing, probalily, the first set of 



eggs of this bird ever taken in Montana. 



O. E. Ckooker, 



Helena, Montana. 



A Few Notes on the Red-tailed Hawk. 



The Red-tailed Hawk, Ihiteo borealis 

 is a resident wherever found. In this 

 locality it is the commonest of our large 

 3iawks. The bird begins laying the last 

 ■of February. Last year the first set 

 Was taken here on the twenty-eighth of 

 -February. This year we began look- 

 ing for them much before that date, but 

 although many nests were examined, 

 no eggs were taken until the thirteenth 

 of March, when out of eighteen nests, 

 old and new, one was found to contain 

 an elegant set of two slightly incubated 

 eggs. 



Col. Goss, iu his admiral)le "Birds of 

 Kansas," says that the number of eggs 

 laid by this bird is "three or four." I 

 have never heard of a set of four eggs 

 being taken here, and only occasionally 

 of three eggs being taken; and I think 

 that nine times oat of ten, two will be 

 found to be the usual complement. At 

 least this has been my experience. This 

 year, I have found a set of one iigg, but 

 I think this was due to a wind-storm, 

 which had blown out a previous nest of 



the Hawks. For it was probably the 

 same pair which we had seen two 

 weeks before, building a nest in a giant 

 sycamore a half mile down the creek; 

 and upon retui'uing, fully expecting to 

 find an elegant set of eggs, we found 

 a few sticks on the ground to tell the 

 story of our shattered hopes. But what 

 oologist has not suffered similar disap- 

 pointments? Why relate experiences 

 which we all have had? Bntjo return 

 — the Hawks had probably repaired to 

 the nearest nest and finished their set. 



I have found the nest at various 

 heights, as for instance— 39 ft , 52 ft ,55^ 

 ft., 65 ft., 66 ft., 76^ ft. and 86ft. These 

 are all actually 'measured distances. — 

 The first case was in a densely wooded 

 district, and no high trees were accessi- 

 ble; but the others were in districts 

 where trees a hundred feet high could 

 easily have been found. From these 

 figures it will be seen that the Hawk 

 prefers a nesting site from fifty to 

 seventy feet from the ground. 



One incident has led me to believe 

 that the placing of "dummy" eggs in 

 the nest, after taking out an incomplete 

 set, is useless. Last year, a Red-tail's 

 nest was found, containing one fresh 

 egg. This egg was taken, l)ut we had 

 no "dummy" to leave and we supposed 

 ofcour.se that because of that, the Hawk 

 would leave the nest; but two weeks 

 later, two more eggs were taken from 

 the nest. 



One peculiar thing was noticed in 

 this year's collecting. Much has l)een 

 written about the persistency with 

 which the Red-tailed Hawk occupies 

 the same nest year afier year; but our 

 experience this year has been that in 

 the first place, to our kiujwledge, not 

 one nest from which sets were taken 

 last year, was occupied this year; and 

 iu fact, one or two nests which were 

 unmolested last j'ear, were unoccupied. 

 Quite a number of old nests wera 

 l)lown out of the trees during a two 

 da3's' wind-storm; but it was long past 



