274 
WILD WINGS 
pated, and there was the rascal, well up in the air, circling 
about with alternate soarings and a series of quick flappings. 
Despite the fact that two men were working right there, and 
had a gun close at hand, no sooner would they get to work 
with saw and hammer than down the hawk would dash and 
snatch a chicken within a yard or two of them. Twice or 
thrice it had tried, but the men had rushed at it and made it 
drop the chicken. For twenty minutes I held the gun while 
the men worked, but the hawk kept its distance. Then, as 
I could not wait, I stood the gun against the coop and started 
off. In a moment, hearing a commotion, I turned and laughed 
right out to see the fierce bird flopping over the ground with 
a chicken in its claws and a big man, shouting and gesticu¬ 
lating, making such a rush that the hawk, seeing that it was 
about to be caught, let go the chicken — which was unin¬ 
jured, save for a slight scratch—and was off. It alighted 
on a tree, and I followed with the gun, but it was too wary 
for me. 
The situations chosen for the nest are usually tall, slender 
trees in groves or woods. In Plymouth County, Massachu¬ 
setts, it selects a pine, in western New PZngland usually 
a chestnut. I have never found it lower than thirtv feet from 
the ground ; usually it is from forty to fifty. The nest is 
large for the size of the bird, a great rough pile of sticks. It 
is very characteristic of the nest that it is unlined, save with 
scales of rough bark, which would seem to be almost worse 
than no lining at all. But the hawk doubtless knows what it 
wants. 
My earliest date for eggs of this hawk was the twenty- 
seventh of April. It was a raw, threatening day, but I drove 
away off to the eastern edge of Middleboro to explore 
new country, where hawks had been seen, and to go through 
a great cedar swamp. Nothing whatever was found, and to- 
