202 



THE MUSEUM. 



which he had caught in a trap, and 

 stated that the birds had a nest in his 

 woods. 



The next day I set out to find the 

 nest and soon located it on the top of 

 a bass-wood stub. The female hawk 

 was seen near, but the nest contained 

 only broken egg-shells; half of one 

 shell was found on the ground. They 

 appeared to be fresh and I think had 

 been eaten by crows while Madam 

 Red-tail was away. 



The nest measured: Diameter, out- 

 side, 36 inches; inside, 12 inches; 

 -depth, outside, 18 inches, inside 6 

 inches. This nest was occupied again 

 in 1895, but I did not disturb it. 



While collecting botanical speci- 

 mens, April 21, 1894, I espied a nest 

 of Buteo borealis in a maple grove. 



It was in triple-forked crotch of a 

 sugar-maple, fifty feet up and contained 

 two eggs, for advanced in incubation, 

 one slightly more than the other. 



The old hawks circled overhead but 

 did not come very near. 



On March 23, 1895, while hunting 

 for Great Horned Owl's eggs on Hem- 

 lock lake outlet, a Red-tailed Hawk 

 was seen to alight on a nest in a tall 

 bass-wood. An examination showed 

 that the nest was not yet completed 

 and a nest was found in a bass-wood 

 about three rods from this one. 



Waiting a few days I returned on 

 April 6th and found Mrs. Red-tail sit- 

 ting. She joined her mate at my ap- 

 proach and they gave vent to their dis- 

 pleasure by loud cries. 



Fifteen minutes of hard climbing 

 brought me to the nest, which was 

 ninety feet from the ground. The 

 sticks projected so far as to cause me 

 some difficulty in getting past them. 



On a bed of corn husks and inner 



bark, rested three eggs, real beauties; 

 two were of a creamy tint, blotched 

 and splashed with reddish-brown; the 

 other had a bluish tinge and was al- 

 most free from markings. When 

 blown, one proved to be fresh and two 

 slightly incubated. 



Fragments of another egg were found 

 on the ground under the nest, it might 

 have been rolled out by accident. I 

 removed the eggs and substituted two 

 specimens of "hen fruit" which I had 

 previously colored for that purpose. 

 Happening to pass the nest a few 

 hours later, the hawk again fiew off, 

 unaware that she had been sitting on 

 hens' eggs and the birds continued to 

 sit for six weeks before they left them. 



This nest was appropriated this year 

 (1896) by a pair of Great Horned 

 Owls, who lined it with owl-down and 

 feathers. 



The Red-tailed Hawk, though he 

 goes by the title " Hen-hawk," is not 

 so much a vagabond as was supposed. 

 Dr. Fisher classed it among our bene- 

 ficial species. Of ten stomachs, from 

 this locality, which I have examined, 

 only one contained the remains of 

 poultry. 



I once found a Snapping Turtle 

 [Lliclydra sa-pcntinc) in the stomach 

 of an immature bird of this species. 

 The turtle had been swollowed whole 

 and was of such a size that it has al- 

 ways been a wonder to me how the 

 hawk managed to swallow it. 



N. Raymond Reed, 

 Raymond Mills, Ont. Co., N. Y. 



Quartz Rock in Clay Slate. 



BY C. M. ORMSBEE, MONTPELIER, VT. 



In an article entitled "Clay Slate of 

 Vermont" which appeared in the March 



