ADDENDA. 115 



Circus hudsonicus. — Mr. Peter Reid, of Lake P. O., Washington County, N. Y., 

 communicates to the Smithsonian Institution the following observations in regard to 

 the nesting of the Marsh Hawk. It should be stated, that they do not correspond 

 with the facts noticed in connection with the eggs of this species obtained in Maine 

 by Dr. Dixon. There was no difference noticed in the progress made in their incuba- 

 tion, or if there was any, it was slight, and escaped observation. Mr. Reid writes : 

 " I have recently visited Fort Edward in this county, where the Marsh Hawks were 

 extremely numerous last summer, and where there are some wintering at this time 

 (February, 1857). My friend informed me that these Hawks nested in great num- 

 bers on the flats near the river. Three pairs nested in his cornfield, whose presence 

 he regarded as so beneficial, that he avoided disturbing the nests. By working in 

 close contact with them, the birds became quite tame, and he was enabled to observe 

 with care their economy during the breeding period. He says that on the first egg 

 or eggs being laid, one of the parent birds constantly occupies the nest, and at inter- 

 vals of two or more days an additional egg is laid ; and that in one of the nests he 

 observed that the young that first appeared had left it before the exit of the last two 

 from the eggs, whose age likewise differed some two or three days. His statements, 

 sufficient of themselves to those Avho know the man, Avere corroborated by others. 

 In the three nests referred to as found in his cornfield, there were eleven, twelve, 

 and thirteen eggs." The largest number I have ever met with is six eggs in a nest. 



Aquila chrysaetos. — This bird is not given by Dr. Heermann in his notes on 

 the birds of California in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy. I therefore 

 inferred (see page 45) that it was not met with by him, or it would have been in- 

 cluded. He writes that in this I was in error, and that he did see this species three 

 distinct tunes, but always in the high mountainous portions of the country. 



Hali^tus pelagicus. — The Northern Sea-Eagle, the largest and most powerful 

 of the family, is a native of the extreme northwestern coast of North America. It 

 has been omitted in the preceding pages, as I Avas not aware that any description of 

 the eggs had been published. Since then Mr. Cassin has given, in his interesting 

 papers on the Ornithology of the United States and British and Russian America, 

 the following translation of the account by Pallas of the nesting and eggs of this 

 Eagle : — 



" In the highest rocks overhanging the sea, this bird constructs a nest of two 

 ells in diameter, composed of twigs of trees, gathered from a great distance, and 

 strewed with grass in the centre, in which are one or two eggs, in form, magnitude, 

 and whiteness very like those of a Swan. The young are hatched in the beginning 

 of June, and have an entirely woolly covering. While Stcller was cautiously look- 

 ing at a nest from a precipice, the parent Eagles darted at him with such impetu- 

 osity as nearly to throw him headlong. The female having been wounded, both fiew 

 away, nor did they return to their nest for two days. But, as if lamenting, they 

 often sat on an opposite precipice." 



This Eagle has been found on the remote coasts of Russian North America, the 



