BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 305 



With all the powers of vision I had, aided by the direction 

 of the cold winter's sunlight, I could not tell that it was even a 

 living object until within a hundred yards of where I was, 

 skimming within a hand-breadth of the ground, it swooped 

 through the paralyzed flock bearing off a victim in less time 

 than it takes me "to dot an i or cross a t." But in the same 

 instant it passed me within thirty yards apparently unconscious 

 of my presence, when I clearly identified the Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk. Although so long a close observer of the habits of the 

 winter birds here, I had not known of the presence of this 

 hawk after about the first of November. Here was the secret 

 revealed to my mind why these birds avoid the protection of 

 better coverts. 



According to all I have been able to ascertain, they arrive 

 quite simultaneously in the upper Red river valley within our 

 borders, and in the more southern localities in the State, in 

 the family bands found in the remoter north, at or before 

 migration. They remain in these smaller flocks until spring 

 draws near, when they begin slowly to consolidate, so that by 

 the time for their general movement northward, about the 

 25th of March to the 1st of April, they have gathered into 

 immense flocks. 



They spend their nights on the slightly protected inclina- 

 tions of naked spots on the prairies, where I have many times 

 found myself in the very midst of them before I know they 

 were in the section. Stragglers occasionally linger long be- 

 hind the general migrations. I met them as late as April 15th 

 in 1875, and Mr. T. S, Roberts, of Minneapolis, secured a 

 pair in very much altered plumage, on May 14th of the same 

 year, if my memory serves me rightly. No nests have ever 

 been reported, although from the circumstances last men- 

 tioned, I see no reason why stragglers may not breed here as 

 "on the ground among low bushes," on a slope of the White 

 Mountains, in New Hampshire, as reported by Mr. Langille, 

 who states that the nest resembles that of the Song Sparrow, 

 and contained young birds. He further says "Another is 

 reported even from Springfield, Mass." In its wonted haunts 

 for nesting it is said to "become a bird of accomplished song, 

 building a substantial nest on the ground, and in the clifts of 

 rocks, lined with feathers and the hair of the Arctic Fox. The 

 eggs are whitish-mottled with brown, especially around the 

 large end where the blotches sometimes become a dark 

 wreath." 



