10 



THB OOIiOOIST. 



cling around in tlie air and late in 

 August quite a flock would sometimes 

 gather far overhead', wheeling, turn- 

 ing, circling much after the manner 

 of Turkey Vultures, finally to go trail- 

 ing QcroS'S the sky toward a more 

 congenial winter home. I knew that 

 not a few of these 'birds were credited 

 with breeding in the San Joaquin Val- 

 ley but not until the sixth of April, 

 1906 did I find an occupied nest. 



On that date I was afield on the 

 "West Side", as the regiooi described 

 above is sometimes called, searching 

 for specimens to add to my oological 

 collection and items of interest for 

 my note hook. It was my good for- 

 tune to be able to inspect among oth- 

 er things, two nests of Swainson 

 Hawk and on the following day three 

 more were found. 



The firsit nest which was about 

 thirty feet from the ground, was built 

 against a large nearly vertical limb of 

 a Cottonwood tree and supported by 

 several smaller horizontal branches. 

 It was not a very large structure and 

 was composed of dry sticks and twigs 

 with a great many green cottonwood 

 leaves for lining and also a few feath- 

 ers. Only one of the birds was about 

 and it did not make any demonstra- 

 tion, although the' nest was' apparent- 

 ly nearly ready for the reception of 

 eggs. Tucked in snugly among the 

 larger sticks of the foundation was 

 the nearly completed nest of of a 

 California Shrike. 



Soon after examining this nest the 

 second one was found in one of two 

 old willow trees growing in the bed 

 of a small shallow slough in which 

 water flowed only occasionally. Un- 

 like the other, this nest wasi placed in 

 the extreme top of the tree but was 

 about the same distance above the 

 ground. The materials used were 

 much the same as in the other in- 

 stance 'but the lining consisted entire- 

 ly of fresh willow shoots, aveiraging 



about a foot in length with the small, 

 tender leaves attached. The female 

 was evidently not ready to commence 

 laying as neither of the birds were 

 in sight and there were no feathers 

 in the' nest. 



I found no more hawk's nests that 

 day but the next morning I was out 

 before sunrise and tramped nearly a 

 mile to a thin, ragged old willow in 

 a wheat field. There had been a light 

 fog during the night but it vanished 

 even before the sun arose, leaving 

 however, great shining drops of mois*- 

 ture sparkling on every wheat blade 

 so that after walking through the 

 knee-high growth for a few moments, 

 I was thoroughly wet; 'but what did 

 that matter? Could I not see against 

 the sky the outlines of a hawk's nest 

 in the tree a short distance away? 



As I neared the 'tree one of the 

 birds pitched down from the nest and 

 alighted on a fence post, while her 

 much smaller mate set on another 

 post nearby and during the time that 

 I was present one of them at frequent 

 intervals gave voice to^ a scream not 

 unlike that of a Wn. Red-tail though 

 not so emphatic and' with just a sug- 

 gestion of plaintiveness it it. 



The nest 'was huilt in much the 

 same position as the one first describ- 

 ed and about sixteen feet from the 

 ground. It was made of rather small 

 dry sticks with a 'three-inch deep lin- 

 ing of green leaves while a great 

 many downy feathers adhered to the 

 nest and even the 'branchs within 

 three or four feet of it. Although I 

 believed it tO' be a little too early for 

 sets of S'wainsoni, yet as I climbed to 

 this 'nest I 'almost expected to find an 

 early set 'but the nest was empty. 



Later in the day I found two more 

 nests built in the top of willows bor- 

 dering a large slough and in one case 

 the tree was several feet out in the 

 water. Each of these nests were lin- 

 ed with green willow leaves and a 



