4 o8 AN AMERICAN HUNTER 



rather dull birds, showed every sign of terror whenever 

 the duck-hawk appeared in the distance; whereas, they 

 paid no heed to the fish-hawks as they sailed overhead. 

 I found the carcass of a black-headed or Bonaparte's 

 gull which had probably been killed by one of these 

 duck-hawks; these gulls appear in the early fall, before 

 their bigger brothers, the herring gulls, have come for 

 their winter stay. The spotted sand-pipers often build 

 far away from water; while riding, early in July, 1907, 

 near Cold Spring, my horse almost stepped on a little 

 fellow that could only just have left the nest. It was in 

 a dry road between upland fields; the parents were near 

 by, and betrayed much agitation. The little fish-crows 

 are not rare around Washington, though not so common 

 as the ordinary crows; once I shot one at Oyster Bay. 

 They are not so wary as their larger kinsfolk, but are 

 quite as inveterate destroyers of the eggs and nestlings 

 of more attractive birds. The soaring turkey buzzards, 

 so beautiful on the wing and so loathsome near by, are 

 seen everywhere around the Capital. 



Bird songs are often puzzling, and it is nearly impos- 

 sible to write them down so that any one but the writer 

 will recognize them. Moreover, as we ascribe to them 

 qualities, such as plaintiveness or gladness, which really 

 exist in our own minds and not in the songs themselves, 

 two different observers, equally accurate, may ascribe 

 widely different qualities to the same song. To me, for 

 instance, the bush sparrow's song is more attractive than 

 the vesper sparrow's; but I think most of my friends feel 

 just the reverse way about the two songs. To most of 



