THE NEW SPORT OF “HAWKING” 287 
quite persistently, but on a close approach flies out and 
circles in the usual buzzard-fashion, uttering harsh screams 
that remind me very much of the notes of its relative the 
Red-tail. I once apjDroached a nest whose owner was more 
disinclined than usual to leave it. She looked down at 
me over the edge, but would not fly until I struck the tree 
several times. Then, before I could climb, she returned to the 
nest, though it was but thirty feet up. I expected on my last 
trip West to be able, without much trouble, to photograph 
these hawks on their nests. Probably this could be done ; but 
I found so much to occupy me that I could not take time for 
the attempt. 
Though Swainson’s Hawk is very common in Dakota, I 
think that the first rank in abundance must be conceded 
to the Marsh Hawk. One cannot travel far on the prairie 
without seeing the long-winged bird with a band of white 
on its rump quartering about low over the ground, now and 
then suddenly dropj^ing into the grass to catch a gopher, or 
perhaps an insect. 
The best place to find their nests is in the grass just up 
from a slough, or even away from water in a depression of 
the prairie, in coarse grass where water has formerly stood. 
At times I have roamed for scores of miles without finding 
a nest. And then again, when I have happened upon a favor¬ 
able locality, it was the easiest thing in the world to discover 
them. The nest itself is inconspicuous, a mere little rim of 
grass and weed-stems, though again, when built on wet 
ground, quite a platform of the same material is constructed. 
One Memorial Day a friend and I were taking a tramp on the 
prairie, and came across a little alkaline lake, with mud¬ 
flats, and, up from its edge, patches of dried weeds. I flushed 
a Mallard in one of these latter from eleven almost hatched 
eggs, and, singularly, only a few rods away, a female Marsh 
