THE OOLOGIST 



31 



perched in the top of a tree across 

 the stream, uttering their plaintiff 

 cries. As I lool\^ed over the edge of 

 the nest I shall never forget the pic- 

 ture — there lay two of the most hand- 

 some Hawk's eggs I have ever seen on 

 a bed of green Hemlock sprays, while 

 below the mountain stream roared on 

 its way through a mass of Rhododen- 

 dron and Hemlocks. The nest was ap- 

 parently built up on an old crow's 

 nest and was built of sticks, chips of 

 bark, twigs and as has been 

 said, lined with green Hemlock. The 

 eggs were incubated about three days. 



In 1913 I found another nest con- 

 taining two eggs in the same woods, 

 on May 26th, but the nest was about 

 fifty feet up in a hard wood, though 

 near the stream. 



Another nest I found with a single 

 young Hawk was very peculiarly 

 placed, being built in a dead Yellow 

 Birch along a mountain stream near 

 my Raven's nest. Though a regular 

 breeder in the mountains of central 

 Pennsylvania, it's nests are hard to 

 find owing to the amount of territory 

 a pair will range over and the fact 

 that the character of the country is 

 not conducive to the easiest methods 

 of hunting. I have also taken its nests 

 in Delaware and Bucks Counties and 

 have found it breeding in Warren 

 County along with R. B. Simpson, but 

 its center of abundance seems to be 

 in Chester County where Messrs. Jack- 

 son, Sharpless and Burns have found 

 numbers of nests. 



Richard C. Harlow. 



Nesting of the Red Shouldered Hawk. 

 Years ago I read eagerly in the 

 colums' of THE OOLOGIST of the 

 numbers of the nests of this species 

 found by Ornithologists in Michigan, 

 New York, and New England. At that 

 time in my home in Philadelphia, my 

 hopes ran mainly toward Hawks and 



each year I tramped the hills in the 

 vicinity in hopes of nests but save a 

 few of the Cooper's and Sparrow 

 Hawk, I was doomed to disappoint- 

 ment. Later at State College, Cen- 

 ter County, I found a total absence of 

 all large Hawks but still clung to the 

 idea that I would find them. In the 

 northern and several of the western 

 counties the Red Shouldered Hawk is 

 a common bird but in the eastern sec- 

 tion of the state it is very scarce as a 

 breeder. Several times on June trips 

 to the Pocono Mountains I have found 

 the fully grown young in the big tim- 

 ber of the swamps and mentally vowed 

 to investigate at the proper time. 



On April 19, 1910, I flushed a large 

 Hawk from a nest in this locality 

 and on climbing hurriedly up found 

 one large, handsomely blotched egg 

 which I left as I was compelled to 

 leave the next day. The nest was 

 placed in the triple forks of a large 

 Sugar Maple half way up a hill, bord- 

 ering a swamp and was built of large 

 sticks and lined as usual, with green 

 Hemlock sprays. 



On April 8, 1912, I happened to be 

 in the locality again and about fifty 

 yards off from the above nest I found 

 a pair building far up in a big Beech 

 tree. As I stood watching them I saw 

 the male place several sticks in the 

 nest and then fly to the female who 

 was perched nearby and stand on her 

 for several minutes, all the while ut- 

 tering his caressing calls. 



April 20th found me back at La 

 Anna again, prepared to make a syste- 

 matic search for the nests of several 

 pairs I had seen on my previous trip. 

 As I neared the nest I had located, the 

 tail of the sitting bird could be seen 

 over the edge and I felt that throb 

 through my veins that only comes 

 with success. Strapping on my climb- 

 ers I labored up the heavy trunk as 

 the Hawk flew with a scream of defi- 



