BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 121 



quite superficial, but that of the other was well-formed. The eggs each 

 nest contained five are deposited about the first of May. They are 

 nearly spherical, white or bluish -white, marked with large and irreg- 

 ular splashes or blotches of brown, and measure about 1.46 by 1.16 

 inches. Gentry, a close observer and facile writer, remarks in his "Life- 

 Histories of Birds," that the " eggs, in some instances, are laid on con- 

 secutive days, but we have positive proofs that sometimes a single day 

 is intermitted, and at other times, even two and three days intervene be- 

 tween each deposit." In one of my nests I found two days to intervene 

 after the deposition of each of three eggs, and the fifth ovum was de- 

 posited after an intervention of three days. Gentry has found them 

 breeding in the deserted nest of the common grey squirrel. Mr. J. 

 Hoopes Matlack, of West Chester, informs me he found a pair breeding 

 in an old crow's nest ; such sites, however, Gentry advises us, are rarely 

 chosen. It is said this species will sometimes nidificate on a ledge or 

 rock or hollow and decaying tree limbs. One nest, which I had the op- 

 portunity of observing from its early commencement, was built by the 

 united labor of both birds, which occupied a period of seven days. 

 Gentry, who, doubtless, has had a more extensive experience, gives three 

 or four days, according to the style, as the time requisite for the con- 

 struction of the nest. Various writers assert that dry grass, leaves, moss, 

 etc., aid in the make-up of the nests ; such, no doubt, is the case, but as 

 previously stated, I have found sticks and twigs to solely constitute the 

 nests. Incubation is alternately engaged in by both birds, which, while 

 they show great solicitude for their offspring, repelling all bird intruders 

 with the most determined zeal and pugnacity, will, when molested by 

 man, show marked timidity, and leave to his desecration their nest and 

 its contents. The young are carefully watched and fed by the parents, 

 chiefly on a diet of small birds sparrows principally until, Gentry 

 says, they are about six weeks old, when they are able to provide food 

 for themselves. 



According to Nuttall, " this species feeds principally upon mice, liz- 

 ards, small birds, and sometimes even squirrels. In thinly-settled dis- 

 tricts, this hawk seems to abound, and proves extremely destructive to 

 young chickens, a single bird having been known regularly to come 

 every day until he had carried away between twenty and thirty." The 

 same writer relates a circumstance, where he was one day conversing 

 with a planter, when one of these hawks came down and without any 

 ceremony or heeding the loud cries of the housewife, who most reluc- 

 tantly witnessed the robbery, snatched away a chicken directly before 

 them. 



Dr. Cones says : " It preys chiefly upon small birds and quadrupeds, 

 capturing in the dashing manner of all the species of this group, and, 

 like its small allies, feeds to some extent upon insects." Since the ad- 

 vent and alarming increase of the English Sparrow, it is not unusual for 



