THE ROBBERS OF THE FALLS 



tear up the snake for her young one, and the camera 

 this time caught her in the act. On the sixth of June I 

 photographed the youngster, fully fledged, about to 

 leave the nest, at the ripe age of forty days. 



Sometimes hawks betray the locations of their own 

 nests. Usually they are pretty careful about ap- 

 proaching them, but the Red-tails and Red-shoulders 

 are often noisy in the woods near the nest, and can be 

 seen circling over it. Noticing this, people living or 

 working near the woods can often put one on the track 

 of a nest. The Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Haw r ks 

 often cackle angrily when one comes near the treasure, 

 and thus betray their secret. Whenever a small hawk 

 sets up a "cack-cack-cack" in the woods in nesting 

 time, one may be confident that a nest is close by. 



A Cooper's Hawk w^hich I once photographed on the 

 nest used to build every year in the same tract of woods. 

 A friend of mine was unfortunate enough to live near 

 these woods and was trying to raise chickens. Though 

 he had ropes stretched all about hung with bottles and 

 rag^, and every corner had its scarecrow or "scare- 

 hawk!" neighbor Cooper was accustomed to visit 

 him on friendly errands several times a day and each 

 time had to have a chicken. So I told him I would 

 break up the nest for him, and went in there one after- 

 noon. After exploring nearly the whole woods in vain, 

 I came back and entered a grove of tall trees so near 

 his house that I had no idea that a hawk would build 

 there. Immediately the hawks set up a prodigious 



51 



