22 



THE OOLOOISl 



hemlock and pines; the hirds were 

 shot by farmers and the egg^s taken 

 by every school boy. So of late years 

 this aocipiter is deemed rare here, and 

 I have net seen a new nest for ten 

 years. But this trained observer 

 found that the birds were here only 

 much shyer, and had chosen very 

 much higher and better building sites ; 

 in three days he took seven sets of 

 these desiderata. 



The Broad-winged Hawk, unknown 

 to most people, is the smallest of our 

 buteos. Not one farmer in fifty has 

 ever seen this bird to know it and he 

 can tell you nothing about its nest 

 and eggs and every-day habits. Even 

 the Lillibridges, whose homestead has 

 long been between the two best breed- 

 ing stretches of chestnut timber in 

 many a furlong, did not know it, 

 though they have shot, trapped and 

 robbed nests of all other local birds 

 of prey. In leafless woods the big 

 Hawks' nests are easy targets for the 

 farmer, but this small buteo, with an 

 inconspicious nest .when foliage is ad- 

 vanced and country hands all busy 

 planting, has escaped general obser- 

 vation. Even skilful collectors rarely 

 secure its mu'ch prized eggs. Our 

 hawker has made a special study of 

 this bird and its ways, knows and imi- 

 tates all changes in its peculiar 

 call, its alarm note and voice, has seen 

 it mating, quarreling and at play, 

 , knows what streams it haunts, and 

 just how far from the water its nest is 

 likely to be placed. Hence his unpar- 

 alleled success with Broad-wings. 



How many writers have foreshad- 

 owed Mr. (Richard's notes which show 

 that red-shouldered hawks place their 

 nests within sight of a farmhouse 

 and farmyard, which they seldom 

 raid; that the redtail's eagle eye is 

 sure always to command every ap- 

 proach to its eyrie; that the broad- 

 wing nests within sight of water; and 



that the sparrow hawk has shown its 

 adaptability by leaving hollows and 

 clefts in trees and breeding common- 

 ly in the sawdust between the sheath- 

 ing of the dairyman's icehouse. Not 

 a pair this season, according to this 

 mass of data, has proved an excep- 

 tion to this general rule for sites. 



Our modern falconer or hawker, be- 

 fore the resident hawks appeared and 

 while snow covered the ground, was 

 in the woods locating every pair of all 

 species on its arrival, saw it mate, 

 build, and breed, and patiently follow- 

 ed the family movements till the last 

 goldfinch was sitting in its thistle- 

 down cup in August. Wonderful in 

 extent and remarkable for endurance 

 were these long tramps through the 

 corners and remnants of standing 

 timber yet left in Preston, Ledyard, 

 Bozrah, Franklin, Salem, Lisbon, 

 'Sprague, Lebanon and Norwich sub- 

 urbs. No' horse was used and no 

 irons came into- play. And right here 

 I challenge any living collector to 

 show such an extensive series of 

 hawks' eggs, taken in one season and 

 one county by one man, by straight, 

 honest shinning. Pew sports are as 

 dangerous, and no work so exhaustive 

 as long, hard climbs to the nests of 

 rapacious birds without the aid of 

 spurs. 



Again I say that the eggs of Broad- 

 wings have always been scarce in col- 

 lections, and no cabinet could show a 

 large and authentic series. Yet, in a 

 restricted locality, Mr. Richards has 

 taken seven sets this season. But, I 

 repeat, it has only been done by in- 

 telligent study, astonishing patience 

 and tireless activity. In two short 

 weeks he has marked down more 

 breeding pairs of Buteo latissimus 

 than most collectors have found in 

 ten years. His large 1908 cabinet, 

 filled with this season's clutches 

 only of these three species, is note- 



