THE OOLOGIST 



25 



May 20, I took a day off and went 

 after the Red-shoulder's nest in ear- 

 nest, determined to put in a whole day 

 if necessary in order to find it, for I 

 had wasted so much time hunting for 

 it that I hated to give up defeated. As 

 i once more approached the pines a 

 Red-shoulder began to yell and circle 

 around overhead and I felt sure there 

 must be a nest there somewhere. I 

 stopped long enough to climb up to 

 the crow's nest in the pitch pine, and 

 as no more eggs had been laid, I took 

 the set of three. Then I started to 

 look over each separate tree in that 

 wood-lot once more and finally under a 

 small white pine scarcely 25 feet tall 

 I found a wing feather of a Red- 

 shoulder and a few excrements from 

 the birds. The branches in the ex- 

 treme top of the tree were thickly clus- 

 tered and at first I could see nothing 

 which looked like a nest. But after 

 changing my position several times, I 

 could see the ends of a few dry twigs 

 lying horizontally among the green 

 pine needles and I felt that I had the 

 right tree at last. Climbing up I found 

 the nest with two eggs of old Buteo 

 lineatus. The nest was similar to the 

 one which the crows had built. It was 

 about the same size and was made of 

 twigs, lined with soft cedar bark. But 

 the lining of this hawk's nest also had 

 dry leaves, grass, a few soft feathers 

 and green branches of both red cedar 

 and pitch pine. I believe it is a com- 

 mon habit of the Redi-shoulder to 

 place one or two green branches of 

 some evergreen tree in the nest lin- 

 ing and I often wonder why the bird 

 does so. The nest was so well hidden 

 that I had passed under it several 

 times without seeing it, and probably 

 I would not have found it at all if I 

 had not noticed the droppings of the 

 birds underneath it. Both the eggs 

 were so badly incubated that the shells 

 were very weak and they cracked 



open while I was trying to remove the 

 embryo. H. O. Green. 



Stoneham, Mass. 



The Cooper's Hawk in Pike County, 

 Pennsylvania. 



The crop of Hawks in Pike County is 

 rather limited. True, it is that the 

 wooded hills can boast their quota of 

 the Red-shouldered but right here we 

 must stop so far as abundance goes. 

 The little Sparrow Hawk, so common 

 over the larger portion of the state, 

 is practically unknown here, while 

 only at favored places does an occa- 

 sional pair of Broad Wings or Red 

 Tails make their home. At long in- 

 tervals we may see the little Sharp- 

 shinned, but rather than any of the 

 above in this region is the much de- 

 spised Cooper's. In six years of field 

 trips into Pike County and through 

 the Poconos I have never seen it but 

 twice. 



Imagine my surprise then, when on 

 May 17, 1913, while working through 

 a heavy patch of primeval timber near 

 La Anna in search of a pair of Pileat- 

 ed Woodpeckers, I was suddenly halt- 

 ed by the peculiar cackle of a Cooper's 

 riawk. At first I could scarcely be- 

 lieve my ears and fervently hoped for 

 a Sharp-shin but as I turned about 

 there was the long, rounded tail of a 

 Cooper's projecting over the edge of 

 the nest fully seventy feet up in the 

 double forks of an enormous Yellow 

 Birch. After a struggle with the rough, 

 flaky bark I looked over the edge and 

 saw four bluish eggs. And glad I was 

 that I had reached the nest for not 

 only was it a record for Pike County, 

 but three of the eggs were distinct- 

 ly flecked and spotted with reddish- 

 brown and I had secured another set 

 of "Spotted Cooper's." As usual the 

 eggs lay upon a hard bed of rectangu- 

 lar bark strips, the cavity being very 

 slight. Richard C. Harlow. 



