1S92.J Allen on the Breeding Habits of the Fish Ha-vk. 2)^S 



the ground. The nest was only seven or eight feet from the ground, 

 so that by stepping on a projecting rail I could readily see the three 

 beautifully spotted eggs within, wliich I pi-omised not to disturb. 

 Mr. Jerome could pass close to the pile of rails without the birds 

 leaving the nest, while I could not get nearer than thirty or forty 

 feet. They would dive down near my head, uttering a shrill cry, 

 and at the same time threateningly stretching out their claws ; and 

 while flying nervously about they constantly uttered a sound re- 

 sembling the call of a young chicken or turkey when lost from its 

 mother. Tliey would alight on the nest again before I was fifty 

 yards away. 



Out on the sandy meadow to the southward were what at a dis- 

 tance appeared to be two gigantic mushrooms about seventy-five 

 yards apart. A nearer approach disclosed the fact that they were 

 cedar trees twenty feet high ; the trunks were about one foot in 

 diameter and without a limb for the first ten feet. The whole 

 top of each tree was involved in a huge nest. These nests, Mr. 

 Jerome said, had been occupied every year for forty years, each 

 year the Hawks repairing them and adding to their bulk. These 

 nests were so unusually large that they are worthy of description. 

 Each nest involved the whole tree, even to the lowest branches. 

 At the base loose sticks, six to twelve feet in length, were spread 

 out so as to -form a projecting platform ten to fifteen feet in diam- 

 eter, forming complete protection from below. The base of the 

 solid portion of the nest was about eight feet across, sloping up to 

 the level top, which was about four feet across, and very firm and 

 solid, and readllv bearing my weight. The bulk of this nest was 

 about-equal to three cartloads. The central part of flie nest con- 

 sisted of a mass of sand and decayed matter from the old nests, 

 much of which had fallen through to the ground. The base of 

 the nest consisted of long sticks, oyster stakes, etc., loosely put to- 

 gether and extending beyond the longest limbs of the tree, making 

 it over twelve feet in diameter. Each year for many years the 

 nest had been repaired and built up with every kind of material 

 that had been washed ashore or could be picked up in the fields. 

 The center of the nest, nearly five feet high, was composed of 

 clods and sand and the decayed remains of material added many 

 years before. The sloping edges of the nest showed its compo- 

 sition to be of rough sticks, some of them quite long, rope, barrel 

 staves, pieces of net floats, corks from seines, seaweed, kelp, long 



