1^2 Stockard, Nesti?ig Habits of Mississippi Birds. [ a^ 



follow, even though their eggs are removed each year. But I have failed 

 to note them using the same nest for more than a single season ; new 

 nests were always built each year. Their homes were made in more or 

 less dense timber-lands, and at times in the depth of heavy swampy 

 woods, never in open fields and pastures where the Broad-winged Hawk so 

 often makes its nest. Large oak and hickory trees were the favorite sites 

 selected by borealis for nesting. The bulky nest was well made of sticks, 

 leaves, bark, and moss, and lined with fibrous bark, moss, and feathers; 

 it was placed in a main trunk crotch or in a crotch of one of the large 

 oblique branches. All sets contained only two eggs each. The maximum 

 laying time was about the middle of March ; the earliest set seen was 

 March 3, 1898, and the latest eggs were found April 24, 1896. This hawk 

 is much detested by farmers and when its nest is found it is fired into with 

 shotguns, thus destroying the brood. 



22. Buteo lineatus. Red-shouldered Hawk. — The Red-shouldered 

 is strikingly similar in nesting habits to the Red-tailed, and was, I 

 believe, the more abundant of the two species in the State. Its nests 

 were also placed in large oak and hickory trees, usually in dense woods 

 but sometimes in thickly grown brakes. The writer has observed many 

 nests of this species, but must also state that in no case have they been 

 found using the same nest for more than one season. They, also, like bore- 

 alis, seem partial to a particular wood as a nesting locality after it has once 

 been chosen. The sets contained only two eggs. The time of principal 

 laying seemed somewhat later than the middle of March. March 6, 1896, 

 was the earliest nest found to contain eggs, and April 18, 1900, a set of 

 comparatively fresh eggs were taken. 



23. Buteo platypterus. Broad-winged Hawk. — Although I have 

 observed only one pair of these hawks while nesting the case proved very 

 interesting. Through an open pasture, bordered on two sides by rather 

 thick woods, ran a small stream only a few feet wide with a line of large 

 cotton-wood trees along its course. On entering this pasture April 4, 

 1898, a hawk's nest was seen in one of the cotton-wood trees which was 

 at this date in rather scanty foliage. To convey some idea of how com- 

 pletely exposed this large nest was, it may be stated that it was seen for 

 the first time and recognized to be a hawk's nest from a distance of at 

 least one half mile. It contained a set of two eggs. Situated in another 

 one of the cotton-wood trees, about fifty yards distant, was a similar nest, 

 probably of the previous season. On April 13, 1899, in the same line of 

 trees and about two hundred yards distant from the 1898 nest, was a new 

 nest containing two eggs. Thus for three seasons apparently the same 

 pair had used this line of trees as nesting sites. The pair of hawks could 

 be seen circling about the pasture almost any day of the year. In 1900 I 

 again attempted to locate their nest but failed; the cotton-woods were 

 deserted and the birds were not to be found. 



24. Haliaeetus leucocephalus. Bald Eagle. — This bird is rather 

 common in the western portion of Mississippi along the river. I have 



