ORNITHOLOGIST 



— AND- 



OOLOGIST. 



A ^Vet Day with the Marsh Hawks. 



Every collector of experience, without look- 

 ing at his lield-books, has a fixed date in his 

 mind when the bulk of a certain species will 

 be found breeding. Overhaul your memoiy, 

 brother-worker, and if you can spare but one 

 day to go after the most eggs of each species, 

 see if it would not be June -Itii for the Parula 

 and Prairie Warblers, Feb.28th for Great Horned 

 Owl, and April 1st for Barred Owls. Others, 

 earlier afield, may secure a big clutch of 

 highly-colored eggs from some young Hawk, 

 the first week in April, or, by lingering, 

 come across an aged liutco covering her two 

 pale eggs the last of May, but ytuir single 

 day of days for the Red-shouldered Hawk is 

 April 20th. 



Your memorized date for Marsh Hawks 

 sliould be May 20th. Hence it was one day 

 late when 1 decided to go on the 21st of May 

 last year after Harrier's eggs. Now let us 

 look at the recoid of the last few years and 

 see how our dates agree with our heads in 

 field work. May 21, 1S81); May 20, 1888: May 

 20, 1887; May IT, 1886; May IT, 188."); May 18, 

 1884; May 20, 1882; May 17, 1881. On June 

 (5, 18S0, 1 found a nest with three young, one 

 pipped egg, and one stale egg — showing the 

 set must have been laid ten days sooner than 

 my earliest record. Between I8T5 and 1880 1 

 had no precedents to go by. and find records 

 of sets taken June 1st, mostly with eggs well 

 incubated. 



So, early in the morning of the 21st of last 

 May, in an open wagon, with my climber and 

 setter dog trained to point ground-builders, 

 I started to drive seventeen miles to North 

 Stoningtou, to look after my four or five 

 pairs of Harriers. The ligiit drizzle at start- 

 ing increased as we covered mile after mile of 

 the highway, until it became a most frightful 

 down-pour. All bird-life disappeared, brooks 

 were soon swollen beyond their banks, and 

 the turnpike was such a river of water that in 



front of the farmhouses goslings were noted 

 swimming in the middle of the road. The 

 storm must have been most disastrous to the 

 many flocks of young turkeys we saw. We 

 were forced to take shelter from the deluge 

 more than two hours in a small wayside shed. 

 Our unheralded entrance disijossessed several 

 tenants iu the shape of two female Robins, a 

 Phoebe, and a singing male House Wren. The 

 Pewee went off her nest on one of the sup- 

 ports of the shed, and as one of the Robins 

 seemed to go off the same nest, we ordered 

 an investigation. It appeared that the post 

 had been sawn in two, and a shingle slipped 

 through it, that stuck f)ut on each side. On 

 the north side of the shingle was the I'ewee's 

 nest with four eggs, ami on the south side was 

 the Robin's holding four eggs. Thus, nests of 

 Flycatcher and Thrush were within eight 

 inches of each other. The second Robin had 

 placed her nest on the seat of a Buckeye 

 mower which was on a sliglit scaffolding over- 

 head. The cup of the nest was normal, but 

 the bottom was so spread out with straw and 

 hay as to nearly fill the seat of the machine. 



The Wren, unmated to all appearance, had 

 filled an old Barn Swallow's nest with sticks, 

 and had stuck bunches of sticks in every 

 handy nook and crevice. 



Peering out through holes in the back of the 

 shed, we saw what we took to be birds inlaying 

 on a sheep barn forty rods out iu the fields. I 

 made a break through the rain to this out- 

 standing barn and discovered our "birds"' to 

 be six young grey scpiirrels, and in a cranny I 

 saw the warm husks and hair where they had 

 been littered. As the clouds lifted and we 

 backed out from our leaky shed for a fresh 

 start, we saw a few Purple Grackles and 

 some bulky remains of old nests in an im- 

 mense elm shadowing the farmhouse, and the 

 farmer told us it was the only place for miles 

 around where the Crowbills built. 



The rain ceased, but it was afternoon before 

 we began circling the first marsh. From this 



Copyright, 1890, by Fkank B. Web.stek. 



