ORNITHOLOGIST 



OOLOGIST. 



$1.00 per 

 Annum. 



Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. 

 Established, March, 1875 



Sinp!e Copy, 

 10 Cents. 



VOL. VI. 



NORWICH, CONN., FEBRUARY, 1882. 



NO. 12. 



Sharp Shinned Hawk. 



The true Falcons do rot often grace New 

 London County with their royal presence. 

 Not since April, 1878, has a Pigeon Hawk 

 betn shot here, and a single Sparrow 

 Hawk's egg is all I have to sliow locally 

 for six years' collecting. But the third of 

 the trio of small New England Hawks is 

 more abundant, and can be found in early 

 summer in sufficient numbers to stimulate 

 search for its lovely eggs. It is not the ob- 

 ject of the present sketch to give a mono- 

 graph of this little Accipiter, but to present 

 an array of homely facts concerning its 

 breeding habits, some cf which may be 

 fresh and of interest to our rising oologists. 



It seems to have been ordained that eve- 

 ry male biped of the genus homo should at 

 an early age get up a collection (?) but be- 

 foi-e he makes war upon aught but common 

 species, and before his movements are gov- 

 erned by much intelligence, the same or- 

 daining power wisely directs his young am- 

 bition into newer channels and the embryo 

 cabinet is banished to the garret or de- 

 scends to the tender mercies ot the young- 

 er brother just coming down with the fever. 

 The Buteos and Owls get off scot free from 

 these collectors, who are ignorant of the 

 early breeding movement, but the luckless 

 Sharp Shinned begins to lay when other 

 Hawks are nearly through breeding and 

 when the woods are swarming with school- 

 boys. For these reasons this Hawk and its 

 eggs are better known than -any others to 

 young observers, and the oiimiferous boxes 

 of sawdust and undetermined eggs can 

 boast many a single end-blown specimen 

 of this species. Six years ago, in June, a 



nesting place of this Hawk, on Laurel Hill, 

 was discovered by these vandals, and 

 fifteen eggs tlius barbarously blown and 

 scattered fourd their way into a round doz- 

 en so-called " collections." 



A fuscus breeds in hemlock clumps and 

 in pine groves, at times near hcuses, and 

 nests in deciduous tt-ees only when there are 

 no evergreens near the favorite hunting- 

 ground or local habitat — then a thick and 

 Itafy white or yellow birch offers a favorite 

 site. At the base of a limb, resting against 

 the trunk of the tree the nest is generally 

 placed. In a hemlock have found it sever- 

 al times not fifteen fi et from the ground, 

 and in a young pine have taken one not 

 eight feet high. Ihe nest is composed 

 wholly of small sticks, no lining whatever 

 being cidded — the slight bowl showing finer 

 sticks than the outride. A. fuscus builds 

 more new nests than any other Hawk with 

 which I am acquainted, rarely using an old 

 one. The collector may sometimes grow 

 weary waiting for the first nest to be fin- 

 ished, as it is not unusual for a pair to leis- 

 urely occupy more than two weeks in nidi- 

 fication. But when the nest is torn down 

 before ovipositing is complete a new one 

 will be thrown together in thirty-six hours. 

 The nest can be easily found when building 

 or when the eggs are being laid, by any ob- 

 server straying near, for the scolding of 

 both male and lemale will surely betray it. 

 VVe often find among small birds nests with 

 two or three cold eggs — incomplete clutch- 

 es with no parent near: but after laying the 

 first egg. Hawks go hunting singly, one of 

 the pair being always at home on guard. 

 Buteos will sit upon the side of the nest and 

 not " hover" the eggs till the clutch is com- 



