14 SHARP EYES. 
Of the hen-hawk, he has observed that both male 
and female take part in incubation. “Iwas rather 
surprised,” he says, “on one occasion, to see how 
quickly they change places on the nest. The nest was 
in a tall beech, and the leaves were not yet fully out. 
I could see the head and neck of the hawk over the 
edge of the nest, when I saw the other hawk coming 
down through the air at full speed. I expected he 
would alight near by, but instead of that he struck 
directly upon the nest, his mate getting out of the 
way barely in time to avoid being hit; it seemed al- 
most as if he had knocked her off the nest. I hardly 
see how they can make such a rush onethe nest with- 
out danger to the eggs.” 
The king-bird will worry the hawk as a whiffet dog 
will worry a bear. It is by his persistence and au- 
dacity, not by any injury he is capable of dealing his 
great antagonist. The king-bird seldom more than 
dogs the hawk, keeping above and between his wings, 
and making a great ado; but my correspondent says 
he once “saw a king-bird riding on a hawk’s back. 
The hawk fiew as fast as possible, and the king- 
bird sat upon his shoulders in triumph until they 
had passed out of sight,” — tweaking his feathers, no 
doubt, and threatening to scalp him the next moment. 
That near relative of the king-bird, the great 
erested fly-catcher, has one well known peculiarity : 
he appears never to consider his nest finished until it 
contains a cast-off snake-skin. My alert correspon- 
dent one day saw him eagerly catch up an onion skin 
and make off with it, either deceived by it or else 
thinking it a good substitute for the coveted material. 
One day in May, walking in the woods, I came 
upon the nest of a whippoorwill, or rather its eggs, 
