i6 



IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



that had died and lodged on the 

 bank. 



The spot on the Cedar river, 

 selected by this hawk for a nest- 

 ing place, is an ideal one, and I 

 will go into detail to describe it. 

 About fifteen miles below Cedar 

 Rapids the Cedar river flovvs for 

 about two miles between bluffs 

 of lime stone, these bluffs vary- 

 ing in height from twenty to one 

 hundred feet. Just before the 

 bluffs begin there is a broad bot- 

 tom land along the river, dotted 

 with numerous small ponds, and 

 Big creek and Indian creek enter 

 the river through this bottom. 

 In times gone by, or within the 

 last ten or twelve years, this bot- 

 tom land was a great feeding 

 ground for ducks during spring 

 and fall migration, and a con- 

 siderable number nested there. 

 If this hawk selected this nesting 

 place a number of years ago, 

 which I am told was the case, it 

 was an ideal one. I have been 

 told by an old hunter who has 

 lived along the river for about 

 twenty-five years that there has 

 been a pair of these there ever 

 since he has been there. 



There is seldom more than one 

 pair of these hawks found in one 

 locality. For a few years before 

 I collected my first set of eggs of 

 this hawk, they had nested and 



reared their young, and flown 

 away but in the spring but one 

 pair of hawks returned. I never 

 heard these hawks make any 

 noise while they were hunting, 

 but when it returned from hunt- 

 ing, after nesting had begun, it 

 usually lit in a dead tre'e across 

 the river from the nest and set 

 up a great cackle when it would 

 be joined by its mate. Then 

 they would both get in the tree 

 and utter their peculiar cry for a 

 while, then one would return to 

 the nest and the other would fly 

 off up the river. I sometimes 

 thought it was a different one that 

 returned to the nest, but was not 

 positive. Col. Goss says that as 

 far as noticed the male sits upon 

 the eggs in the fore part of the 

 day and the female in the latter 

 part of the day. The one off 

 duty sometimes feeds the other, 

 but usually sits perched in a tree 

 as a guard. I have noticed that 

 the one off duty puts in the 

 greater share of its time a con- 

 siderable distance from the nest: 

 have watched for two hours at 

 a time before seeing the other 

 than the one on the nest. Then 

 I would see the other one com- 

 ing from a distance^always from 

 the direction of the bottom lands 

 before mentioned. It would 

 alight and sit awhile, then fly 



