HEN-HAWKS 139 



screamed, coming sometimes quite near or. within gun- 

 shot, then circling far off or high into the sky. At length, 

 as I was looking up at it, thinking it the only living 

 creature within view, I was singularly startled to behold, 

 as my eye by chance penetrated deeper into the blue, — 

 the abyss of blue above, which I had taken for a soli- 

 tude, — its mate silently soaring at an immense height 

 and seemingly indifferent to me. We are surprised to dis- 

 cover that there can be an eye on us on that side, and so 

 little suspected, — that the heavens are full of eyes, though 

 they look so blue and spotless. Then I knew it was the 

 female that circled and screamed below. At last the 

 latter rose gradually to meet her mate, and they circled 

 together there, as if they could not possibly feel any 

 anxiety on my account. When I drew nearer to the tall 

 trees where I suspected the nest to be, the female de- 

 scended again, swept by screaming still nearer to me just 

 over the tree-tops, and finally, while I was looking for 

 the orchis in the swamp, alighted on a white pine twenty 

 or thirty rods off. (The great fringed orchis just open.) 

 At length I detected the nest about eighty feet from the 

 ground, in a very large white pine by the edge of the 

 swamp. It was about three feet in diameter, of dry 

 sticks, and a young hawk, apparently as big as its mother, 

 stood on the edge of the nest looking down at me, and 

 only moving its head when I moved. In its imperfect 

 plumage and by the slow motion of its head it reminded 

 me strongly of a vulture, so large and gaunt. It appeared 

 a tawny brown on its neck and breast, and dark brown 

 or blackish on wings. The mother was light beneath, 

 and apparently lighter still on rump. 



