BIRDS OF PREY 147 



inclined each season to return to the same tract of 

 woods. Sometimes they alternate between different 

 adjoining tracts of timber, but where they have nested 

 once they are apt to do so again, certainly within sev- 

 eral years. Moreover the woods which suit one pair 

 are apt to be congenial to others for the same reason, 

 so each selected tract is liable to continue productive, 

 if the birds are not killed off. 



It is well to inquire of residents as to where hawks 

 or owls have been seen or heard, as well as to direct 

 one's own eyes and ears toward the same end. Where 

 they are repeatedly heard or seen, there they will 

 probably nest, or are so doing. Sometimes from 

 open fields, with my glass, I have watched the 

 wooded ranges of the adjacent hills and seen hawks 

 fly right to their nests. All nests, even of the late- 

 breeding sharp-shin, are built before the leaves are 

 out, which is, of course, the time to find them. There 

 is all the difference in the world between leafless 

 woodland with its open vistas, and the same when it 

 is dense and dark with foliage, so get at the work 

 early. 



The main prerequisite of success, then, is to know 

 the country thoroughly, where every bit of large 

 timber is, even small patches of it, and on the final 

 hunt to go through it systematically. One can do 

 better, ordinarily, in a region where there are few 

 or no large continuous areas of forest, but where the 

 old, tall timber is in scattered groves. This restricts 

 the area over which the nests might be scattered. 



