June, 1885.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



Hawking. 



BY J. M. W., NORWICn, CONN. 



In these degenerate days the fiilconer does not 

 go afield to fly his belled and hooded peregrine, 

 but with a pair of trusty climbing-irons he him- 

 self mounts into the air, and base-born Buteo or 

 true Falcon are alike to him in his quest. Though 

 not counting it an advance on the kingly diver- 

 sion, yet the modern liawker takes a keen pleasure 

 in spurring his way up the straight bole of a 

 chestnut, with borealix screaming overhead and a 

 fresh clutch of eggs for his quarry. You who 

 have tried this royal sport of an April morning, 

 will go again another year, and the present writer 

 can tlien be pardoned for recording his experience 

 in old fields in successive years. 



It has been shown that a late season does not 

 delay the early breeding Raptores. This year 

 Great-horned Owls laid their first epg Feb. 22 ; 

 my earliest set of Barred Owl was taken March 

 26, and first Red shouldered Hawk, April 9. >Iay 

 10, took si.K sets of Cooper, and May 17, three sets 

 of Marsh Hawks. So, though the arrival and 

 breeding of Warblers and other small migrants 

 was delayed from seven to ten days, yet the nest- 

 ing of Owls and Hawks is on the average dates 

 of former records. 



I have taken three sets each from one Barred 

 Owl and one Cooper's Hawk this year, and three 

 sets from one Marsh Hawk last year. B. borealis 

 does not so often lay two sets as linmttm, and with 

 our Bubo the limit is usually two sets. 188n bids 

 fair to be a time for big sets, as I have taken four 

 sets of Red-shouldered Hawks of four eggs each, 

 one set of six Coopers, and have climbed to three 

 C'row's nests holding clutches of six. In early 

 April, I left some homely incubated sets of Red- 

 tails to hatch, but am inclined to think this was a 

 mistaken mercy, for when the lusty young 

 clamor for food, the farmers are liable to fijllow 

 the over bold purveyors to the nest and shoot 

 both young and old birds. There are in my pos- 

 session a number of old bullets, buckshot and 

 leaden slugs which I have dug out from the base 

 of limbs forming the crotch of a tree which has 

 been the cradle for generations of Hawks. This 

 murderous brush-house artifice is another depar- 

 ture from the falconrj' of old. 



All my Harrier sets were plain and had the 

 anomaly peculiar to this species and Cuckoos of 

 fresh and incubated eggs in the same clutch. 

 Two pairs of Unetitus lived in last year's Cooper's 

 nests, and other nests of last season were laid 

 under tribute for dozens of eggs. One set of 

 Cooper's with shell twice the usual thickness, in 



addition to markings, presented long calcareous 

 ridges similar in nature to the pimples common 

 on eggs of the Barred Owl. There appears to be 

 no local race of Sparrow Hawks around Norwich, 

 but we may have more than our share of Barred 

 Owls, for I know the nesting places of seven 

 pairs. March 20, April 18, and May 9, were the 

 dates for the three sets from one Barred Owl this 

 year. I have explored Lantern Hill, in Ledyard, 

 and Mt. Misery, in Voluntown, and heavy tracts 

 of isolated limber, but find no trace or tradition of 

 Duck Hawks ever breeding in this region. The 

 Osprcy's immense summer homes are still com- 

 mon along shore and in several swamps here- 

 abouts more than a dozen miles from the Sound. 

 Of the thirty well feathered Hawk's nests re- 

 corded this year, many were in low crotches and 

 re-touched Crow's nests, still the average height of 

 the nests of i>. borealis last Ajiril, by actual meas- 

 urement, was fifty-one feet. Tlie customary sea- 

 son's take of one hundred eggs was easily reached, 

 with the smaller Accipiter to hear from, and in 

 this connection it is interesting to note why the 

 bulk of the early-breeding Hawks have compara- 

 tive imnumity from the farmers. The Buteos be- 

 gin housekeeping just as the chojiper takes his ax 

 and sled out of the woods ; and the ploughing and 

 planting with their train of duties come on so fast 

 that our rural friend can spare but an occasional 

 Sunday morning for his amateur Falconry. 



Swainson's ^A^arble^ in North 

 Carolina. 



BY n. n. B., NEW BERNE, N. C. 



Since reading Mr. William Brewster's exhaust- 

 ive article on (Ilelmintlierus swainsoni) in "The 

 Auk" for January, I have, during my collecting 

 rambles in the swamps around here this Spring, 

 been anxiously searching for sufficient eviilences 

 to add this rare and interesting bird to the fauna 

 of North Carolina. 



On April 13, 1 was collecting along the line of 

 the Atlantic and North Carolina Railroad, about 

 a mile northwest from here, the aspect of the 

 country being a succession of cultivated fields in- 

 terspersed with strips and patches of swamp, the 

 growth being chiefly gum, maple and myrtle 

 (evergreen), with patches of reeds and briars about 

 the edges of the swamps. These thickets are fa- 

 vorite resorts of the Maryland Yellowthroat, 

 White Eyed Vireo, Hooded Warbler, Summer 

 Yellowbird, and several other Warblers. I was 

 standing on a slight rise in a small patch of 

 swamp, and had killed a pair of Maryland Yel- 

 throats without changing my position, when a 



