OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA. -241 



it will not hesitate to make a meal out of its victim, upon 

 the ground. 



As before remarked, this species seldom nidificates in 

 low southern latitudes, but principally in the higher lati- 

 tudes. Nidification certainly takes place during the latter 

 part of April, or the beginning of May, which would carry 

 the ma ting-period backward to the first week of April, or 

 the last of March. The nest is generally placed in a con- 

 iferous tree, and occasionally on the ledge of a shady clifV. 

 or in a hollow tree, at heights varying from six to ten feet. 

 Ordinarily, the nest consists of a framework of sticks, 

 and is lined with mosses, grasses, fragments of barks, 

 and generally with a few feathers. Sometimes they arc 

 placed on the summit of trees, and, at other times, 

 against the trunk. Mr. Kennicott discovered a nest June 

 2, 1860, which was built in a poplar, and measured about 

 a foot in diameter. In the vicinity of Hudson's Bay, the 

 nest is built on rocks, or in hollow trees. On the 25th of 

 May, an Indian, in the employ of Mr. Macfarlane, found a 

 nest containing two eggs, both parents being visible at the 

 time. Nearly a week subsequently, he revisited the nest, 

 which still had but two eggs, fired upon the birds, but 

 missed them. Several days thereafter he paid his third 

 visit to the nest in order to secure the parent birds, when 

 to his surprise, the eggs had mysteriously^ disappeared. 

 His first supposition was that the nest had been robbed, 

 but a careful survey of the surrounding country, revealed 

 the presence of the birds ; this led to the institution of a 

 search for the missing eggs, which resulted in their discov- 

 ery on the face of a muddy bank, whither they had been 

 spirited by the parents, not more than forty paces distant 

 from the original nest. A few decayed leaves constituted 

 the merest apology of a nest, on which was placed the two 

 eggs above alluded to, with a third which had been depos- 

 ited in the interval between the second and last visits. 



A nest taken in Jamaica by Mr. March, as cited by 



