THE NEW SPORT OF " HAWKING" 287 



quite persistently, but on a close approach flies out and 

 circles in the usual buzzard-fashion, uttering harsh screams 

 that remind me very much of the notes of its relative the 

 Red-tail. I once approached a nest whose owner was more 

 disinclined than usual to leave it. She looked down at 

 me over the edge, but would not fly until I struck the tree 

 several times. Then, before I could climb, she returned to the 

 nest, though it was but thirty feet up. I expected on my last 

 trip West to be able, without much trouble, to photograph 

 these hawks on their nests. Probably this could be done ; but 

 I found so much to occupy me that I could not take time for 

 the attempt. 



Though Swainson's Hawk is very common in Dakota, I 

 think that the first rank in abundance must be conceded 

 to the Marsh Hawk. One cannot travel far on the prairie 

 without seeing the long-winged bird with a band of white 

 on its rump quartering about low over the ground, now and 

 then suddenly dropping into the grass to catch a gopher, or 

 perhaps an insect. 



The best place to find their nests is in the grass just up 

 from a slough, or even away from water in a depression of 

 the prairie, in coarse grass where water has formerly stood. 

 At times I have roamed for scores of miles without finding 

 a nest. And then again, when I have happened upon a favor- 

 able locality, it was the easiest thing in the world to discover 

 them. The nest itself is inconspicuous, a mere little rim of 

 grass and weed-stems, though again, when built on wet 

 ground, quite a platform of the same material is constructed. 

 One Memorial Day a friend and I were taking a tramp on the 

 prairie, and came across a little alkaline lake, with mud- 

 flats, and, up from its edge, patches of dried weeds. I flushed 

 a Mallard in one of these latter from eleven almost hatched 

 eggs, and, singularly, only a few rods away, a female Marsh 



