'.IM THE WILSON BULLETIN No. GO. 



the Point and :i few miles inland. Tlie birds we saw were flying very 

 low and we h;id a nuignilicent. view of their wonderful flight. 



r,.x. *r//rif.v hutlsonicux. Marsh Hawk. 



A common hawk, and scon almost every day on all our visits, beat- 

 in- slowly over the marsh-lands or soaring over the woods. It was 

 still common Oct. 15, 1900. Gardner observed them during the win- 

 ter of 1000-07, Dec. 1, Jan. 25, Feb. 13 and 23. As early as March 9 

 we saw two old blue adults l> eat ing over the still frozen marshes and 

 the snow covered meadows. 



iX).*Accipiter velox, Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



The most interesting phenomena we have observed at the Point 

 centers about this bird. NVe have met this species only occasionally 

 on our May trips, but in the fall there is a truly astonishing flight 

 composed almost entirely of juveniles. This flight seems to be a reg- 

 ular annual occurrence and is looked for and expected by the resi- 

 dents. Saunders first saw the flight in 1882 and/described it to us in 

 such glowing terms that it sounded like exaggeration. However, on 

 Sept. 10, 1905, we saw for ourselves and only wondered at the re- 

 straint that he had used. Since then we observed the same thing in 

 1900, and our latest reports from Gardner, the middle of September. 

 1907, advises us that like conditions prevail again. Our earliest 

 Sharp-shin date is August 30, 1907. In 1900 we saw one Sept. 3, and 

 the year previous there were some numbers present on our arrival 

 Sept. 4. 



After the coming of the first in the fall their numbers steadily in- 

 creased until from six to a dozen can be noted in a day, which in 

 most localities would be accounted common. Then there came a day. 

 Sept. 11, 1905, and Sept. 15, 1900, when the morning's tramp found 

 'Sharp-shins everywhere. As we walked through the woods their 

 dark forms darted tiway between the tree trunks at every few steps. 

 Just over the tree tops, a steady stream of them was beating up and 

 down the length of the Point, while in the air they could often be dis- 

 cerned at every height until the highest looked like a mote floating 

 in the light. As concrete illustrations of the number present: In 

 1905 we stood in a little open glade and at various times of the day 

 counted from twenty-five to thirty in sight at one time and Saunders 

 writes, "When I saw the flight in 1882 it was probably even greater 

 than in 1905. There were more Sharp-shins than one would suppose 

 were in Ontario, and one day my brother and I stood thirty paces 

 apart, facing each other, with double-barrel, breech-loaders, and for 

 a short time the hawks passed so thick that we had to let some go 

 by unmolested because we could not load fast enough to fire at each 

 as it came." A farmer told us of sitting in his front yard one after- 

 noon and shooting fifty-six without leaving his chair. 



Early in the morning of the arrival of the flight there seems to be 



