THE OOLOGIST. 



185 



tions committed upon domestic poultry 

 may be attributed to it. Bendire says: 

 "Cooper's Hawk must be considered as 

 one of the few really injurious Raptors 

 found within our limits, and as it is 

 fairly common at all seasons through 

 the United States, it does in the aggre- 

 gate far more harm than all other 

 hawks. It is well known to be the 

 most audacious robber the farmer has 

 to contend with in the protection of his 

 poultry, and is equal in every way both 

 in spirit and dash, as well as blool- 

 thirstiness, of its larger relative, the Gos- 

 hawk, lacking, however, the strength 

 of the latter, owing to its much smaller 

 size. It is far the worst enemy of all 

 the smaller game birds, living to a 

 great extent on them as well as on 

 smaller birds generally. It does not 

 appear to be especially fond of the 

 smaller ro ients. These as well as rep- 

 t'les, batrachians, and insects seem to 

 enter only to a limited extent into its 

 daily bill of fare, and unfortunately it 

 is only too often the case that many of 

 our harmless and really beneficial 

 hawks have to suffer from the depreda- 

 tions of these daring theives." How- 

 ever, this has always been the most in- 

 teresting of hawks to me, perhaps be- 

 cause the first I ever shot. To relate 

 the story: It was late in the afternoon 

 on a September day. A friend and 

 myself were returning from a collect- 

 ing trip rather disappointed with our 

 day's "catch," when we noticed a hawk 

 sailing through the air. Suddenly he 

 seemed to drop into an apple tree at 

 the end of a long field. We crept to 

 within gun range, when he suddenly 

 sailed from the tree. I tired bringing 

 him to the ground- When we got up 

 to him he turned over on his back and 

 showed signs of fight. Not knowing 

 the strength of a wounded hawk, I 

 went to pick him up. when at the same 

 time he took a gentle hold on my hand, 

 and would not let go until we killed 

 him. 



Mr. J. Claire Wood speaks of a female 

 Cooper's Hawk in his collection which 

 was taken in Greenfield Tp., Wayne 

 County. The bird had dashed through 

 the laths of a hen coop in pursuit of 

 pome small chickens, and was caught 

 by the farmer before it could escape. 

 It was very poor in flesh, and its stom- 

 ach was empty, which probably ex- 

 plains its daring ferocity. Mr. Wood 

 also records the following sets of eggs 

 of the Cooper's Hawk taken by him. 



"May 6, 1900. Nest situated about 45 

 feet from the ground in the main fork 

 of a slanting beech, in higher portion 

 of a thick woods in Van Buren Tp., 

 Wayne County. This nest contained 

 four eggs. 



"May 5, 1901. From same pair of 

 birds, nest also 45 feet from the ground 

 in fork of young beech, the trunk of 

 which was not more than nine inches 

 in diameter. This nest was not more 

 than 100 feet from tree containing old 

 one. The old bird was not at home, 

 but put in h°r appearance as I ascended 

 the tree, and was very demonstrative, 

 sweeping down within a few feet of my 

 head. Was induced to climb by notic- 

 ing bits of down clinging to nest and 

 surrounding limbs, which is invariably 

 the case, I believe, when incubation has 

 commenced. This nest contained five 

 eggs somewhat incubated. 



"May 11, 1900. Rather open oak 

 woods bordering railroad track, Clark- 

 ston, Mich. The continued persistant 

 cries of this bird induced me to look for 

 the nest. There was a great many old 

 crow nests in the woods and I climbed 

 to several before discovering the one 

 containing the eggs, which were five in 

 number, and very slightly incubated. 



"The most remarkable part of this 

 take was the fact that while it rained 

 steadily all day, the hawk had not been 

 on the nest for some hours, for the nest 

 was soaking wet, and the eggs cold, 

 nevertheless, she was very solicitous 

 over the welfare of her home." 



