BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 305 
With all the powers of vision I had, aided by the direction 
of the cold winter’s sunlight, I could not tell that it was even a 
living object until within a hundred yards of where I was, 
skimming within a hand-breadth of the ground, it swooped 
through the paralyzed flock bearing off a victim in less time 
than it takes me ‘‘to dot anior cross at.” But in the same 
instant it passed me within thirty yards apparently unconscious 
of my presence, when I clearly identified the Sharp-shinned 
Hawk. Although so long a close observer of the habits of the 
winter birds here, | had not known of the presence of this 
hawk after about the first of November. Here was the secret 
revealed to my mind why these birds avoid the protection of 
better coverts. : 
According to all I have been able to ascertain, they arrive 
quite simultaneously in the upper Red river valley within our 
borders, and in the more southern localities in the State, in 
the family bands found in the remoter north, at or before 
migration. They remain in these smaller flocks until spring 
draws near, when they begin slowly to consolidate, so that by 
the time for their general movement northward, about the 
25th of March to the 1st of April, they have gathered into 
immense flocks. 
They spend their nights on the slightly protected inclina- 
tions of naked spots on the prairies, where I have many times 
found myself in the very midst of them before I know they 
were in the section. Stragglers occasionally linger long be- 
hind the general migrations. I met them as late as April 15th 
in 1875, and Mr. T. S. Roberts, of Minneapolis, secured a 
pair in very much altered plumage, on May 14th of the same 
year, if my memory serves me rightly. No nests have ever 
been reported, although from the circumstances last men- 
tioned, [see no reason why stragglers may not breed here as 
‘‘on the ground among low bushes,” on a slope of the White 
Mountains, in New Hampshire, as reported by Mr. Langille, 
who states that the nest resembles that of the Song Sparrow, 
and contained young birds. He further says ‘‘Another is 
reported even from Springfield, Mass.” In its wonted haunts 
for nesting it is said to ‘‘become a bird of accomplished song, 
building a substantial nest on the ground, and in the clifts of 
rocks, lined with feathers and the hair of the Arctic Fox. The 
eggs are whitish-mottled with brown, especially around the 
large end where the blotches sometimes become a dark 
wreath.” 
