THE DUCK HAWK, ETC. 155 



species, that it is well known to many of our farmers and 

 sportsmen, who readily distinguish it from other hawks by 

 its bold dashing flight, and peculiar manner of capturing 

 its prey ; and its nests, I learn, are sometimes found by 

 them, and the young destroyed. 



All accounts agree that they nest -in almost inaccessible 

 cliffs ; and often the nest can only be approached by a 

 person being let down by a rope from above. The old 

 birds are represented as bold in the defence of their nest, 

 approaching so near as generally to be easily shot. They 

 arrive early at their nesting place, and though they often 

 bestow no labor in the construction of a nest, beyond the 

 scraping of a slight hollow in the ground, they defend 

 their chosen eyrie for weeks before the eggs are laid, and 

 are known to return for several years to the same site. 

 Incubation commences very early, the young having been 

 found in the nest at Mount Tom May 30th, nearly fledged*, 

 and on Talcott Mountain in the same condition June 1st, 

 so that the laying of the eggs must occur by the last of 

 March, or very early in April. The number of eggs has 

 been known in several instances to be four. 



Mountains Tom and Holyoke, in Massachusetts, afford 

 several localities favorable for the nidification of the Duck 

 Hawk, and sometimes several pairs, and probably usually 

 more than one, breed about these mountains-)- ; about the 

 last of May, 1863, Mr. Bennett saw five adult birds of 

 this species about Mount Tom. Dr. W. Wood of East 

 Windsor Hill, Ct., informs me. that two pairs of Duck 

 Hawks were evidently breeding on Talcott Mountain in 

 the summer of 1863. 



Discovery of the eggs on Mount Tom. Although the 

 Duck Hawk has been long known to breed at the localities 

 in Massachusetts mentioned above, those conversant with 

 the fact were not aware that any special interest was 



* According to R. B. Hildreth, Esq., of Springfield who visited this 

 nest May 30th, 1861, and noted the fact. The nest on Talcott Mountain, 

 Ct., was found the same season, and first visited only a few days later — 

 about June 1st, 1861. (See Hartford Times, as quoted above). 



f Since the above was written I have been informed by Mr. Bennett, 

 that a pair of these Hawks actually raised their young on Mount Tom, 

 in the summer of 1884, notwithstanding one pair was broken up the 

 same season. 



