dollars worth of poultry before the^- and their youuy 

 leave the locality. 



Externally the nest is buiU of sticks varying uiuch 

 in size. It is generaly lined with the inner layer of 

 bark, although, frequently, blades of grass, feathers 

 and leaves entei* into the construction of the interior. 

 While certain writers have described the nest as broad, 

 with but a slight concavity, 1 liave invariably found 

 the concavities to be well marked. The eggs measure 

 about 1.92x1. .50 inches and usually number from three 

 to four, although it is not a rare occurrence to find five. 

 In color they are a dull, bluish-white. Sets are some- 

 times taken with numerous and unevenly distributed 

 brown or reddish spots. The period of incubation i.s 

 given by Prof. Thomas Gentry (Birds of Eastern Penn- 

 sylvania), to be 18 days. Although in this particular 

 my observation has been somewhat limited, 1 am fully 

 convinced that the time required for this, likewise 

 other of our birds of prey, is three weeks or over. The 

 young leave the nest in about 25 days; when about S 

 or 9 weeks old they are able to provide food for them- 

 selves; to this time, however, they are carefully guard- 

 ed by the old birds and fed almost entirely on a diet 

 of small wild birds, chickens, an occasional mammal 

 and some few insects. 



AN AUDACIOUS POULTRY THIEF. 



While it is true that the Cooper's Hawk preys to a 

 much greater extent on full grown poultry than does 

 his daring little relative the Sharp-shinned Hawk, 

 there is no doubt that at times individual Cooper's 

 Hawks are equally as bad about destroying young 

 poultry as are the Sharp-shinned Hawks. For impu- 

 dent daring tliis present spi-cii's, \Aithont donlit. ranks 

 pre-eminent among (lie ia|i[orial gcner.i. Almost every 



