I3O FALCONID, : HAWKS. 



is quite a colony of Night Herons there. There being 

 not trees enough for the Hawks to nest in, many of them 

 build on the ground, and some lay their eggs in the 

 sand. They occupy the same nest for years, adding a 

 little to it each season, till some of them, that were 

 originally placed flat on the ground, had become so large 

 that I could not look into them ; they were seven feet 

 high and measured six or eight feet across the top ! On 

 the 4th of June I found both young birds and fresh eggs 

 in some of the nests. The Crow Blackbirds had built 

 their nests in among the large sticks of the Fish Hawk's 

 nests, there being often four or five of the former placed 

 about the sides of one of the latter." (B. Conn., 1877, 



P- 89.) 



The eggs of the Fish Hawk run through all the 

 varieties of coloration usual in this family, from white to 

 creamy, tawny, and reddish ground color, with a few pale 

 brown markings or very boldly blotched with the richest 

 shades of sienna, burnt umber, bistre and sepia. There 

 is usually a great deal of reddish in the spotting as well 

 as the ground color, and the "mahogany" samples 

 make very, handsome objects. The size is very variable : 

 a specimen before us measures an inch and a half in the 

 conjugate by two and three-quarters through the major 

 axis. 



GOLDEN EAGLE. 

 AQUILA CHRYSAETUS (L.) Cuv. 



Chars. Tarsus completely feathered. Dark brown with a purplish 

 gloss ; lanceolate feathers of head and neck, golden-brown ; 

 quills blackish ; in the young, tail white, with a broad terminal 

 black zone. About 3 feet long ; wing upwards of 2 feet ; tail a 



