ORNITHOLOGIST 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1875 



Single Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VI. 



N.ORWICH, CONN., DECEMBER, 1881. 



NO. 10. 



Cooper's Hawk. 



Before transcribing my notes on the 

 breeding habits of the vivacious little Sharp- 

 shinned Hawk, we must pay our compli- 

 ments to its larger congener. Indeed 

 through the season it forces itself upon our 

 notice in so many ways, and with such per- 

 sistence, that we are obliged to respect its 

 prior claims. When we go into the leafless 

 woods, during the first week in April, for 

 our earliest set of Buteos, the Cooper's 

 Hawks are already paired and apparently 

 ready to begin housekeeping. They feign 

 alarm at our approach to the old haunts, and 

 following us, scold us well as we go from 

 nest to nest. But as usual with the sex 

 when house-hunting, the females are capri- 

 cious and not easily suited. The old home, 

 though in good repair, is perhaps in a 

 neighborhood where callers are too free, 

 and ample time must be taken to choose a 

 new tenement. 



Then again, about the twenty-fifth of 

 April, when we once more climb to our 

 Buteos, hoping for a second clutch, we are 

 S'lrprised to find the first egg of a Cooper 

 which has taken possession of this ready- 

 furnished abode. The second week in May 

 they are breeding commonly, and by the 

 first of June they are so abundant here as 

 to outnumber all the other Raptores. They 

 will breed in old nests in the same low sit- 

 uations in hemlocks and young pines as the 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk, but they frequent as 

 well the tall deciduous woods, and I have 

 taken eggs from dizzy heights on outlying 

 prongs, away above the loftiest forks of the 

 Buteos. Very rarely A. Cooperi selects a 

 new and unused site, but as a rule old nests 



are used, and often on a pile of rubbish in 

 a crotch they will rear a very large super- 

 structure. If the forks of the tree go up a 

 little way without divergence, the pair will 

 work for weeks and raise the nest three or 

 four feet until it is bulkier than the home of 

 any of our local rapaciae except the Fish- 

 hawk. I know to-day where there are three 

 such old Cooper's nests which are piled so 

 high with brush that standing on a level 

 with the bottom of the nests it is difficult 

 for a climber to reach inside. The males 

 assist at intervals in bringing sticks, and 

 unite with their mates in scolding any wit- 

 ness of their house-raising. 



The fecundity of this Hawk, under the 

 peculiar persuasion of the oologist, is not so 

 great as its small congener's, yet it will lay 

 three clutches each year in as many nests 

 if the first and second sets are taken. Five 

 eggs is the usual clutch, though I have seen 

 four eggs incubated many times, and have 

 taken an extreme clutch of six. The first 

 egg laid is usually pale blue, the rest of the 

 nest complement is lighter, and the eggs as 

 a whole fade as incubation progresses. 

 Two weeks are occupied in laying, and at 

 the end of one week's incubation the eggs 

 can be easily blown. Sets with markings 

 are not rare; but the pigment is used spar- 

 ingly, so as a rule a fair series of these eggs 

 present few changes and are unattractive. 

 I can believe that for one acquainted with 

 our New London County woods, and all 

 the old Crows' and Hawks' nests here, it 

 would not be a hard task to secure a half 

 bushel of these accipitrine eggs every sea- 

 son. (For the benefit of those incredu-. 

 lous collectors who do not live where Hawks 

 breed freely, and who cannot realize esti- 



