THE OOLOGIST. 



41 



About Those Red-tails. 



Philo, 111., Jan. 28, 1906. 

 My dear Mr. Short: — 

 My experience with the Red-tailed 

 Hawk in Illinois has been so like that 

 o f George L. Fordyce of Youngstown. 

 Ohio, that I should like to know more 

 about the set of five eggs found by 

 Mr. W. K. Hatler. The date in 

 May is possible if the the earlier nests 

 of the Red-tail has been disturbed, as 

 this bird is very persistent. My ex- 

 perience, however, has been that second 

 and third sets of a season are invaria- 

 bly smaller with all birds, (if the same 

 number of eggs has not been deposit- 

 ed) never a larger number. With sev- 

 eral years notes on the Red-tail for 

 reference, I find the following facts. 

 Personally I have never looked into 

 a Red-tailed Hawk's nest that con- 

 tained more than two eggs. My last 

 season's list was seven sets of two. In 

 each case the Hawks rebuilt and de- 

 posited two eggs, which they hatched. 

 One exception, however, because of 

 the beautiful markings of the first 

 and second sets from one female, I 

 will confess that she had to lay a 

 third set, before I allowed her to 

 hatch her brood. 



By May 20 she was faithfully incu- 

 bating her third set of two eggs and 

 the lusty young pair are probably as 

 happy as though they had been hatch- 

 ed in March. At any rate I did not 

 reduce the supply of Red-tails, for 

 only one brood is reared each season 

 under any circumstances. 



Although my luck has never extend- 

 ed beyond sets of twos, Dr. Jesse has 

 collected at least three sets of three 

 each, in the same vicinity. Also, I 

 had the pleasure of seeing (and a 

 great temptation to steal) a fine set 

 of four eggs all beautifully marked. 

 They were collected by S. S. Stansell 

 in March, 1905, in Putnam county, Illi- 

 nois, along the Illinois River. I re- 



gard sets of three Red-tailed Hawks 

 as rare, sets of four very rare and 

 sets of five so extremely rare that 

 if they were taken in May, I am 

 afraid they might turn out eggs of 

 the Red-shouldered Hawk. 



ISAAC E. HESS. 



Owing to the interest excited by 

 these Red-tail records, I reprint the 

 following from Sept., 1904. Oologist, 

 and would say that I would not hesi- 

 tate to guarantee this set of five eggs. 

 I have full faith in Mr. Price's state- 

 ments and had the set in my pos- 

 session a fortnight. 



The eggs were a plain colored, full 

 sized type of Red-tail and uniform 

 as to general shape. 



I hope to give more on the sub- 

 ject later. 



E. H. SHORT. 



Five Eggs of Red-tail. 



An unusual set of five eggs of Red- 

 tail Hawk, taken in Kankakee county, 

 111., Apr. 12, 1904, by E. A. Price. Mr. 

 Price says: 



"This wood was examined on April 

 2d, except a small portion and I was 

 within 100 yards of this nest at that 

 time but I first saw it from another 

 grove on the opposite side, one-half 

 mile away, on April 12th. Had I found 

 it on the 2nd, it would probably have 

 contained 2 or 3 fresh eggs as the 

 set had been incubated about one 

 week on the 12th. And yet some peo- 

 ple don't believe in luck." 



We took photo of this set through 

 kindness of Mr. Price, but owing to 

 an unfortunate selection of back- 

 ground, the photo would not make a 

 half-tone. 



We specially regret this as one egg 

 was cracked in transit back to Mr. 

 Price's Collection, an accident we 

 greatly regret though he kindly re- 

 frains from a very hard kick.— Editor. 



