THE OOLOGIST. 



119 



proper food, which is fish. 



The number of eggs laid by this 

 species varies from five to eleven, so 

 far as our personal observation 

 goes. They are oblong in shape, 

 nearly equally and somewhat sharply 

 pointed at each end and with a heavy 

 calcareous shell of a bluish tinge, us- 

 ually discolored to such an extent by 

 the nest that they are in and the bony 

 deposit adhering to them as to hide 

 the natural color of the shell from 

 view. 



On the smenth of June of this year 

 I found a nest of this species in a 

 small pond-like lake nine miles South- 

 east of Prince Albert, Canada, contain- 

 ing two fresh eggs, and on which the 

 bird lay dead. 



More About the Pennsylvania 

 Goshawks. 



Since writing about the nesting of 

 the Goshawk in Warren County, Penn- 

 sylvania, we have had more adven- 

 tures with the same birds. 



As I said in my acount of their nest- 

 ing, I had gone that way again sever- 

 al days after securing eggs and found 

 that the old birds had decorated the 

 nest with fresh sprigs of hemlock. 



1 kept away until April 20th when 

 I paid a visit. Going up carefully to 

 the tree I saw or heard nothing of 

 the old birds, so pounded the tree but 

 with no results. In looking for owls' 

 nests earlier in the season I had found 

 two other large nests near the Gos- 

 hawk's so I concluded to take a look 

 at these. At the most promising I 

 found nothing, but at the other the 

 old Goshawk left at once in response 

 to a vigorous pounding on the tree. 

 I had promised Mr. Thomas H. Jack- 

 son, of West Chester, the young, if 

 the hawks should nest again, so I left 

 the vicinity and did not go near until 

 May 20th when Spencer and myself 



made the trip. We found both old 

 birds very much agitated, but on 

 reaching the nest what was our sur- 

 prise to find only broken egg shells. 

 There must have been two or three 

 eggs and the set must have been de- 

 stroyed during a brief absence of the 

 old hawk. Possibly by a crow. 



Directly under this nest, a Solitary 

 Viero was building in a low hemlock. 

 The old hawks continued their fuss so 

 we went over to the other large nest 

 found while hunting owls. The hawks 

 became even more noisy, so we de- 

 termined to investigate. This nest 

 was very large and was high up in a 

 big oak. On the upper side of this 

 oak and about thirty feet away stood 

 a very tall slightly-leaning maple. 

 Up this maple Spencer went until he 

 got above the nest and could see in. 

 To his surprise he saw two eggs. The 

 camera was sent up and the nest and 

 the eggs photoed. A measurement on 

 the line showed that the camera was 

 eighty-four feet and four inches from 

 the ground when the photo was taken. 



July 2d we concluded it was time to 

 get the little fellows, so we visited the 

 nest early in the morning. We got 

 very close without seeing a sign of 

 the hawks and had just begun to think 

 that something had happened, when 

 from somewhere the old female ap- 

 peared on the scene. She came 

 straight at our heads and actually 

 came so close that I ducked and Spen- 

 cer struck at her with his climbers. 

 Then she fairly made the woods ring 

 with her noisy cries, and the male at 

 once appeared on the scene and added 

 to the racket. We sat down for about 

 ten minutes during which both old 

 birds dove down at us repeatedly and 

 sometimes alighted within thirty feet 

 of us, all the time screaming loudly. 

 Both were in fine feather. I hud ex- 

 pected the female would be rather 



