6 



THE OOLOGIST. 



more than 30 feet from the one of the 

 year before. This time I observed the 

 bird closely and saw that it appeared a 

 little smaller than a Cooper's Hawk and 

 had a shorter tail, and was not so noisy 

 and aggressive. It flew into a poplar 

 tree near by, where it was joined by its 

 mate, and all the time I was near the 

 nest they kept up the cry which is dis- 

 tinctive of the species. The nest was 

 about 30 feet up, composed of sticks and 

 twigs, and lined with bark, green leaves 

 and the down of poplar buds. It con- 

 tained a very handsome set of three 

 eggs, incubation about half done, and 

 measuring 2.01 X 1.63, 2.01 x 1.63 and 

 1.99x1.60. They are spotted all over 

 with brick-red spots and dots so thickly 

 that the ground color can not be seen, 

 but the coloring is heaviest at the larger 

 end on one egg, and at the smaller on 

 the others. 



I was away during the next three 

 years, but on May 10th of last year, 

 while after a set of Long-eared Owls, 

 within about one-half mile from where 

 I found the nests in '95 and '96, I heard 

 the now familiar cry again. The bird 

 seemed to follow me wherever I went, 

 although i only saw it once, and I could 

 hear its cry for a long time. Taking the 

 hint from the bird's actions, I went to 

 the place where I had been successful 

 before, but though there were several 

 old nests in the vicinity, I saw nothing 

 of the hawk until I had reached the far 

 side of the wood about 300 yards away, 

 when I heard it again close at hand. I 

 looked around for a nest, and at first 

 saw none, but finally discovered what 

 appeared to be au old squirrel's habita- 

 tion about 15 feet up in the crotch of a 

 large black oak, growing on a narrow 

 neck between two sloughs and with 

 only a few other trees around. As the 

 birds were both on hand sitting among 

 the branches of trees near by, though 

 out of sight, I thought it best to investi- 

 gate, and with some difficulty on ac- 

 count of the size of the tree, I got up to 



the nest. The crotch in which it was 

 placed was formed by the junction of 

 five branches with the main body of the 

 tree and formed a very secure position. 

 It was built on the remains of an old 

 squirrel's nest and was composed of 

 sticks and twigs, lined with pieces of 

 bark, a few feathers, and some green 

 twigs with the leaves on. It measured 

 14 X 18 inches in diameter on the out- 

 side, was 14 inches deep outside, 7 

 inches in diameter inside and the hollow 

 was 4 inches deep. It contained no eggs 

 so I left it for a future visit. On the 

 same day as I was pushing my way 

 through an extensive wood of voung oak 

 and poplar, which covered the sides of 

 a high hill and was so grown up with 

 underbrush as to be almost impenetra' 

 ble, I heard "siggee.'" "siggee" near by, 

 but could see no bird. I goon forfnd a 

 nest in a small red oak, and then another 

 and another, until I found five, all with- 

 in fifty yards of the first one, none of 

 them more than twenty feet up, but 

 they all proved on examination to be 

 old ones, so I gave it up for the time 

 being. 



On the evening of the 17th, while out 

 for a ride back of Lake Harriet and 

 within the city limits of Minneapolis, 

 and on high ground, mostly under cul- 

 tivation, I saw a hawk fly from a small 

 grove of oaks, which is about an acre in 

 size and is within 500 yards of Minne- 

 haha Creek. 



When returning about dusk, I stop- 

 ped at the grove and pushed my way 

 through the underbrush to the center of 

 the grove, where I soon found a nest 

 placed about 18 feet up in the forks of a 

 small oak. The outside of the nest was 

 rather loose and scraggy, and spread 

 out so that I could not see whether there 

 was a bird on or not, but a small stick 

 tossed up brought Mrs. Broad-wing off 

 the nest to alight on a tree near by and 

 scold as long as I was near. 



The nest was rather wide and the de- 

 pression very shallow and was lined 



