THE OOLOGIST. 



this species with three almost fresh 

 eggs on Aug. 17th, lSt)3. Is not that 

 •unusually late? 



Wm. Wake, 

 Knoxville, Teun. 



The Marsh Hawk and It's Eggs. 



One morning in June a farmer stood 

 iu his yard with a loaded gun in his 

 hands watching a paii of Buteos lazily 

 circling overhead While thus watch- 

 ing, a Marsh Hawk came skimming 

 over the wall and picking up a chicken 

 Avas away witn it's quarry hefore the 

 slow, rustic battery in the farmers 

 hands could be brought to bear on it. 

 It is for such occasional forages, that 

 this useful Harrier is shot by the aver- 

 age farmer. But fortunately there are 

 some farmers who can and do appreci- 

 ate the usefulness of this Hawk. He 

 destroys those pests of the farmer, the 

 mole, go dier, rats, mice and a great 

 number of snakes. Whence he receives 

 his various epithets; as Mouser, Snake 

 Hawk aud Mole Hawk. After or dur- 

 ing such a life of usefulness, should this 

 bird be hunted, shot and killed? 



It plainly shows the ignorance and 

 stupidity of the average farmer. In 

 spring the country boy finds its nest 

 and marks the spot. He waits until 

 the young are hatched and then pro- 

 ceeds to wring their necks. 



The nest of the Marsh Hawk is gen- 

 erally a bulky affair, anywhere from an 

 inch to a foot high, and from about a 

 foot wide to two feet. Some times it 

 builds no nest at all but simply depos- 

 its its eggs in some small depression in 

 dry sphagnum moss or some similar 

 substance. In such cases the bird 

 builds no nest for the purpose of better 

 concealing her eggs. On the contrary 

 some of the nests are extremely large. 

 They are sometimes built large for the 

 reason being always built in a swampy 

 place they are in danger of being sub- 

 merged by the water and are therefore 

 built large for the purpose of avoiding 



this danger, but the general cause of 

 these large nests are the results of nest- 

 ing in the same spot for a series of 

 years, each year the bird adding more- 

 to the nest in repairing it for use. 



The usual number of eggs in a set of 

 the Marsh Hawk is three, sometimes- 

 four or five and but rarely two. When 

 first laid their color is a greenish blue,, 

 fading before the clutch is complete to 

 dirty white which color is given by the 

 closest odlogists as the true color of the 

 eggs. Sometimes the eggs are marked 

 over with a dark chocolate color, but 

 commonly are not. The choicest sets- 

 of eggs of the collector are those that 

 are marked. 



Extreme sets are sometimes found: as- 

 many as seven in a nest. More than 

 that have been reported before, but the 

 the cases are improbable. Many facts- 

 tend to show also that the two birds, 

 (Marsh II iwk) which lay marked eggs 

 one season will lay marked eggs every 

 season; and those that lay plain or un- 

 marked eggs one season will ever after 

 lay plain eggs. 



There are facts also which go to prove- 

 that the two birds that lay a certain 

 size and shape egg in one season will 

 lay the same shaped and same size egg 

 all other seasons. Many authorities 

 doubt that still and L has never been 

 proven yet. 



The Marsh Hawk is perhaps the most 

 noiseless of our breeding rapaciae. The 

 cry made by some of them has an inti- 

 mation of the Fish Hawk, but in general 

 the cry approaches more nearly that of 

 Cooper's Hawk. 



To those who have only seen and- 

 known the subject of this sketch, as the 

 skimmer of the meadows, floating and 

 quartering spaniel-like over bushy low- 

 lands he will hardly seem like a being 

 of the upper air. Yet, he has his aspir- 

 ations, as we may see; the females, after 

 being flushed and shot at, would be 

 joined by the male and haug for hours 

 far overhead, mere specks in tha sky, 

 seemingly above the loftiest flights of 

 the Buteos. 



