THE OOLOGIST 



38 



were rather open so that the Hawk 

 could not see me leave, she would im- 

 mediately return to the entrance to 

 the nest and remain there until the 

 click of the camera frightened her 

 away again. This maneuver was re- 

 peated until Jones had taken as many 

 snapshots as he wished. Then, after 

 the camera and equipment was packed 

 up, we began to look around for a 

 chance to take some more pictures of 

 nests. After wandering through the 

 woods and fields I finally found a nest 

 of twigs placed on some horizontal 

 branches right against the trunk of a 

 rather small white pine tree which 

 stood in the center of a small grove 

 bordering on a meadow near a river. 

 Over the edge of the nest, which was 

 only about thirty-five feet from the 

 ground, I could see the tail feathers 

 of what proved to be a Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk. A sharp rap on the tree trunk 

 frightened her from the nest but she 

 remained near and uttered a shrill 

 cry frequently rpeated, and soon her 

 mate joined her. 



Jones climbed up the tree and found 

 four very handsome eggs, which I 

 afterwards discovered were quite 

 fresh. As the tree was not a difficult 

 one to climb, I went up also, and both 

 of us remained in the tree for about a 

 half hour, while Jones used up all his 

 remaining plates in both cameras, 

 taking pictures of the nest and eggs 

 from different positions in the tree, in 

 order to make sure of satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



Both kept near us, crying shrilly at 

 times, and frequently darting up with- 

 in fifteen or twenty feet of us as long 

 as we remained in the tree. But 

 whenever either of the Hawks decided 

 to rest a moment they would alight 

 on a branch of some near pine at a 

 distance, which made it impossible to 

 focus the camera for a good picture 

 of the birds themselves. 



After Jones had finished with the 

 camera I packed the eggs in my col- 

 lecting box, and then, after looking 

 the nest over carefully we descended 

 from the tree and started for home. 

 This was my first and only set of the 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk, and I do not 

 need to remark that I was very well 

 satisfied with the morning's work. 

 The nest was made of twigs, no other 

 material being used, although the 

 twigs used as a lining were much 

 smaller and finer than those of the 

 exterior. No downy white feathers 

 such as we frequently find clinging to 

 the sticks of a Red-shoulder's nest 

 were visible on this Sharp-shin's nest. 

 I hunted around that locality a couple 

 of weeks later to see if the Hawks 

 would have a second set in this same 

 nest, or anywhere in the same vicinity, 

 but found no trace of the birds on 

 this last trip. However, I will be there 

 again next year. 



The photgraphs of this nest and set 

 of eggs came out very fine and Jones 

 kindly gave me a full series of them, 

 but as I think he intends to publish 

 his own notes sooner or later and use 

 his photos as illustrations, I do not 

 feel at liberty to submit them for pub- 

 lication now. 



My friend, Edward S. Coombs, re- 

 ports an interesting, although aggra- 

 vating experience, with Hawks' eggs 

 this same season. On May 13th he 

 found a Red-shoulder's nest from 

 which he collected a set of three eggs 

 rather heavily incubated. Later in the 

 same day, he found an occupied nest 

 of the Cooper's Hawk, which he was 

 unable to reach without climbers. So 

 he went back a couple of days later 

 with an acquaintance, a linesman 

 named Murphy, who was thoroughly 

 at home on the telegraph poles, but 

 not accustomed to oological work, Mr. 

 Coombs handed his collecting box to 

 Murphy, who easily climbed up and, 



