THE OOLOGIST 



61 



Nesting of the Sharp-Shinned Hawk. 



The Sharp-shinned Hawk must be 

 considered a rather uncommon breed- 

 er here in Eastern Massachusetts, 

 within twenty-five miles of Boston. In 

 the last three seasons I have found 

 two nests. Prom the first I collected 

 a set of four eggs on June 9, 1907. 



During the season of 1908, I hunted 

 for their nests more or less but with- 

 out success until about 6:00 p. m. on 

 the afternoon of June 11th as my wife 

 and I were returning home from an 

 afternoon spent in the woods, my at- 

 tention was attracted by the unusual 

 amount of hawk signs which I no- 

 ticed among some pine trees which 

 grew along one side of a wood road 

 where I had frequently passed during 

 the Spring. 



I soon discovered a likely looking 

 nest and near the base of the tree a 

 fresh feather which looked like a pri- 

 mary of a small hawk. I thumped the 

 tree vigorously with a club and with 

 one of my climbing irons, but to no 

 purpose. I then buckled on the irons 

 and started to ascend the tree and 

 had climbed at least a dozen feet be- 

 fore the sitting bird flew silently from 

 the nest. I neither saw nor heard her, 

 but my wife, who was watching the 

 nest, saw the bird fly. I assume that 

 it was the female and shall so con- 

 sider the bird in this account. She 

 didn't make any outcry until some 

 time later when we heard her succes- 

 sion of short whistles from the nearby 

 woods. 



Upon reaching the nest I found it 

 contained five eggs, rather more 

 sparsely marked than the average eggs 

 of this species; four being marked 

 with dark brown, the fifth looking as 

 if it didn't belong to the same set, 

 the markings on it being of a very 

 pale, light brown. 



The nest was located in the charac- 

 teristic position; on a couple of hori- 



zontal branches, against the trunk of 

 a medium sized pine, thirty-four feet 

 from the ground. 



It was entirely new, of small sticks 

 and without lining. I quote the fol- 

 lowing from my note book. 



"June 16. Went to the nest at 3 p. 

 m. Climbed about fifteen feet before 

 the bird flew. She sat around in near- 

 by trees calling out occasionally, but 

 kept out of sight most of the time. 

 She made one dash through the tree, 

 just below the nest while I was above 

 it attempting to get a snapshot of it, 

 which attempt was unsuccessful. 



June 20. Mr. Alfred C. Hill of Bel- 

 mont and I visited the nest about 2 

 p. m. for the special purpose of secur- 

 ing photographs. The bird was not on 

 the nest, or at least I didn't see her 

 fly off as he climbed the tree. After 

 he had drawn up his camera I joined 

 him in the tree. There was one young 

 bird, just hatched, and a second one 

 had already chipped the shell that 

 held it. This young one soon emerged, 

 the egg breaking laterally around the 

 middle in two parts almost equal in 

 size. The old bird meantime was mak- 

 ing herself heard from the nearby trees. 

 The sun beat down so hot on the nest 

 that we kept it shaded by hat or cam- 

 era cloth except at the time of making 

 the exposures. 



The eyes of the young were bluish 

 black. A sixteenth to an eighth of an 

 inch at the points of both mandibles 

 was black, the remainder of the bill 

 flesh colored pink. The legs were of 

 the same pink, also the feet. 



The old bird did not come in sight 

 during the whole time we were in the 

 tree, though we could frequently hear 

 her. Before we left the tree the other 

 eggs were noticeably chipped and 

 showed signs of immediate hatching. 

 This would seem to be rather conclu- 

 sive evidence that, although this spe- 

 cies frequently takes a week or ten 



