6 Staten Island Association of Arts and Sciences 



twigs, and on climbing up I found a practically complete, but 

 empty, red-shouldered hawks' nest. On the 13th and 14th I vis- 

 ited it but found no bird on it, though the hawks were in the vi- 

 cinity and were very noisy. On April 20 I again climbed up, to 

 find the nest lined with pine and cedar twigs and containing 

 two eggs, of a dull white ground color with brownish spots. 

 The bird that had been sitting on the nest was in the streaked 

 immature plumage of the species. Before I paid my next visit, 

 April 30, a third egg had been added to the set, and the top of 

 the nest, as well as a great many of the branches around it, had 

 caught the white fluffy down-feathers from the old hawks. 

 The eggs were still unhatched on May 5 and 19, and on the latter 

 date the nest was decorated with a few leafy twigs from decidu- 

 ous trees. At length, on the first of June, I found the grayish 

 white young hawks in the nest, which was again ornamented with 

 green leaves, and on the edge of the nest I found a mole. The 

 branches beneath the nest were spattered with white excrement, 

 a prominent feature about most red-shouldered hawks' nests after 

 the young are hatched. 



A second red-shouldered hawks' nest was located on April 13, 

 about thirty feet from the ground, in a white oak in another 

 patch of woods near Great Kills. When I first climbed up to it, 

 April 20, there were already three eggs, and a few cedar twigs 

 in this instance had been used in lining the nest. On May 5 

 two of the eggs had already hatched, disclosing the usual downy 

 white birds, with egg teeth on their bills, and the third egg had 

 a hole in it, through which another chick could be seen. Six 

 days later, when two of the young hawks still showed their 

 white egg teeth, I made the following notes of their color. The 

 down was slightly buffy, the cere bright yellow, rims of eyelids 

 greenish, iris brown, bill horn blue, and feet pale yellow. By 

 June 1 there were large patches of dark feathers on them, but 

 they were still unable to fly. The nest was lined with fresh 

 leafy oak twigs, and contained some of the feathers of a scarlet 

 tanager and a vireo. This was the last visit I was able to make 

 to the nest, but I took one of the young hawks home, photo- 

 graphed it, and finally made it into a study specimen. 



