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ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 9-No. 7 



This spring (1884) I determined to be on 

 the war-path in time. Early in March, I 

 had occasion to pass several times a week 

 near a heavy timber, about four miles 

 from town. My attention was often at- 

 tracted by about a dozen Crows, near the 

 edge of the timber, making a great outcry 

 over something they evidently did not 

 fancy. Thinking there might be a Great- 

 horned Owl's nest in that timber, I visited 

 it on March 21st, and discovered a very 

 large nest in the forks of a Pojjlar tree, 

 about sixty feet from the ground, on 

 which a large Red tail was seated, appar- 

 ently taking the world easily in spite of 

 the noise made by the clamorous Crows. 

 Not having my climbing-irons, I was 

 obliged to leave them until March 24th, 

 when I took a beautiful set of two eggs. 

 The ground color was a dull white, beauti- 

 fully marked with obscure lilac and brick- 

 red ; one of them had a zone of brick red 

 blotches extending around the smaller 

 end, and the rest of the surface was en- 

 tirely covered with obscure lilac. The 

 nest was a bulky affair, consisting chiefly 

 of large sticks, some of which were two 

 feet long and three-fourths of an inch 

 thick. Being placed in the forks of a tree, 

 they were obliged to build to a height of 

 two feet before the nest was of the re 

 quired diameter, which was about thirty 

 inches. The cavity was about four inches, 

 deep and was lined with corn husks, strips 

 of bark, etc. This had the appearance of 

 an entirely new nest. This pair of birds 

 lingered around the nest for two weeks 

 and then went half a mile north, amongst 

 large white oaks, and commenced to build 

 a second nest, which they completed in 

 about ten days. April 22d, by the aid of 

 climbing-irons, I secured the second set 

 of three from a nest very similar to the 

 first in a large white oak, forty-five feet 

 from the ground. This set was blotched 

 with obscure lilac like the first, the only 

 difference in general markings being the 

 lighter color, and the brick-red was 



changed to a very light brown. After re- 

 maining near this nest for a week they 

 went two miles southeast and commenced 

 to build a third nest, and to avoid further 

 depredations from mankind they placed 

 this nest in an almost inaccessible place in 

 a large Cottonwood tree, which stood in a 

 pasture field, ten rods from the main body 

 of the woods. The nest was very nearly 

 completed when it was partially destroyed 

 by a storm, but they immediately begun 

 to set to work to repair damages and in a 

 short time had it ready for their third set. 

 I was now pretty sure of securing the 

 third set, but was doomed to disappoint- 

 ment; for on visiting the place, May 15 th, 

 I found the nest destroyed and one of the 

 birds nailed to the tree with outstretched 

 wings. I am sure these three nests were 

 all built by the same birds; for one of 

 them had several feathers missing from 

 one wing, which afforded a sure mark. A 

 few days after getting my first set, I was 

 showing them to a young man attending 

 my school, and he told me of a nest forty 

 rods from his home, where he said a pah- 

 had reared their young for a number of 

 years. His home being my boarding place 

 for five days each week, I had a fine op- 

 portunity of observing them. On March 

 27th, they commenced repairing their nest, 

 which was on a lofty Basswood tree, 

 eighty feet from the ground on a steep 

 hillside. One of the topmost branches 

 had broken off and fallen across a horizon- 

 tal one a short distance from where it 

 forked and formed quite an extensive jdat- 

 form on which the nest was built. This, 

 like the former nests, was built of large 

 sticks and lined with bark, corn husks, etc. 

 Having a good field telescope, I could see 

 the movements of the birds very plainly 

 from my window, and it was very interest- 

 ing to watch their movements as they la- 

 bored to get the nest in trim. Morning 

 seemed to be their busiest part of the day. 

 I am afraid if they knew my intentions 

 they would have abandoned that particu- 



