26o WILD WINGS 



activity, driving, tramping, climbing, amid the wildest wood- 

 land tracts and forests, always on the lookout, every nerve 

 and sense attuned. So much woodcraft and knowledge 

 of the wild things' habits is involved that success gives 

 a splendid satisfaction. Having found the nest, one may 

 climb the tall tree, often at some risk, examine, and 

 photograph the nest, eggs, and young, and, most difficult 

 of all, the parent birds, and subsequently study their habits. 

 The ancient " hawking," where people rode around with 

 a tame hawk or falcon and let it fly at a poor lumbering 

 heron, to see it torn to pieces, was no sport at all, in com- 

 parison. 



When living in southeastern Massachusetts I was accus- 

 tomed to find over thirty nests of hawks and owls mostly 

 the former, and not including the colonizing Ospreys each 

 season. Each nest involved a separate hunt, and it meant 

 hundreds of miles of rough exploration, but it was perfectly 

 splendid sport. 



My method of ferreting out the hawks of a given territory 

 is to begin in late autumn, when the leaves have fallen, and 

 explore the region thoroughly, noting especially the groves 

 or tracts of large timber and the presences of old nests 

 platforms of sticks in the forks of tall trees. These trips 

 serve for needed outing and exercise all winter. A few of the 

 hawks remain about their old haunts throughout the year, 

 and in early spring the absentees return. The continued 

 presence of hawks in or about certain woodland tracts is 

 a good clue, especially if they can be detected carrying 

 building material. 



When the nesting-season arrives, I visit the likely spots, 

 and with an opera-glass critically examine every nest in sight. 

 Unlike the owls, hawks more commonly build their own nests, 

 though they frequently add to an old one, or even use a leafy 



