210 UVK HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



house. I did not examine this nest till March 2(5, when it contained a young 

 bird just hatched and an egg from which the young was on the point of 

 emerging. The parents made much ado and frequently flew at my climber, 

 coming sometimes within 10 feet of him. The nest was placed in a good- 

 sized pine tree in low pine woods and about 30 yards from a cypress swamp. 

 It was situated 56 feet from the ground, and about 2 feet from the body of the 

 tree, on a large limb. It was composed of sticks with pine needles scattered 

 among them, and lined with cypress bark, pine needles, Spanish moss, rabbit 

 hair, and feathers from the sitting birds. It also contained a dead mouse and 

 the remains of a large rabbit. The nest, though of large circumference, was 

 very shallow and had hardly any depression for the eggs to lie in; from the 

 fact that another large nest laid on the ground below this one, which appeared 

 to have been blown from the same tree, I think the female was obliged 

 to lay in the new one before it was completed. The egg was badly nest- 

 stained, fairly well marked, and measured 62 by 45 millimetres." 



According to Mr. P. Smith, jr., the Red-tailed Hawk is very common dur- 

 ing the breeding season in portiqns of southwestern Illinois, and especially so 

 in Bond County, where they nest in considerable numbers. Here they prefer 

 high dry woods to the swampy bottom lands for the purpose of nidincation. 

 No special preference is shown for particular species of trees; oaks, hickory, or 

 elms are most often used to nest in. They place their nests at various distances 

 from the ground, anywhere from 20 to 90 feet up, generally from 50 to 60 feet, 

 Usually they nested in or near the edges of timbered tracts, and an occasional 

 nest might be placed in an isolated tree in a pasture. A pair of these Hawks 

 were always sure to be found in any grove inhabited by squirrels, whose worst 

 enemies they are. They also catch many rabbits. 



In southwestern Illinois nidincation ordinarily commences about March 20; 

 full sets of eggs, however, have been found as early as March 3, and again as 

 late as June 10, the latter no doubt being second or even third layings. The 

 number of eggs to a set is two or three, some seasons the smaller sized sets pre- 

 dominating, in others the larger. In more than a hundred nests examined by 

 Mr. Smith, but one contained four eggs. 



The nest of the Red-tailed Hawk is a large bulky structure, measuring on 

 an average about 24 inches in diameter and from 10 to 15 inches in depth. 

 The inner cavity is rather shallow, usually not over 2 inches deep. There is 

 considerable variation both as regards size and bulk in their nests, those which 

 have been used for several years in succession, and to which slight additions are 

 made yearly, exceeding such as are newly built. Generally they are very 

 indifferently lined and not models of neatness. Sometimes the eggs lie directly 

 on the coarse twigs of which the nest is composed; other nests are fairly well 

 lined with strips of bark, corn husks, dry leaves and grasses, weed stalks, moss, 

 or fine hemlock twigs. 



In the southern part of its range the Red-tailed Hawk commences nesting 

 in the latter half of February or the first week in March, and even at more 



