MARSH HAWK 125 



less on its breast with its head down and is already 

 about four inches long! An hour or two after, I see 

 the old hawk pursue a stake-driver which was flying 

 over this spot, darting down at him and driving him 

 off. 



Aug. 8, 1858. Saw yesterday a this year's (?) marsh 

 hawk, female, flying low across the road near Hildreth's. 

 I took it to be a young bird, it came so near and looked 

 so fresh. It is a fine rich-brown, full-breasted bird, with 

 a long tail. Some hens in the grass beneath were greatly 

 alarmed and began to run and fly with a cackling to the 

 shelter of a corn-field. They which did not see the hawk 

 and were the last to stir expressed the most alarm. 

 Meanwhile the hawk sails low and steadily over the 

 field away, not thinking of disturbing them. 



Oct. 9, 1858. Methinks hawks are more commonly 

 seen now, — the slender marsh hawk for one. I see four 

 or five in different places. I watch two marsh hawks 

 which rise from the woods before me as I sit on the 

 Cliff, at first plunging at each other, gradually lifting 

 themselves as they come round in their gyrations, higher 

 and higher, and floating toward the southeast. Slender 

 dark motes they are at last, almost lost to sight, but 

 every time they come round eastward I see the light of 

 the westering sun reflected from the under sides of 

 their wings. 



JVbv. 20, 1858. He * says that a marsh hawk had his 

 nest in his meadow several years, and though he shot 

 the female three times, the male with but little delay 

 returned with a new mate. He often watched these 



^ [Martial Miles, a Concord farmer.] 



