The Force of Habit. 



1 1 



Swallow and convert its mud retort into a grass-lined nest of its own. This occurred at 

 Basin Harbor, Vermont, in 1883, before the Sparrows were so generall}' condemned. The 

 nests were in line under the eaves of a farmer's barn, and the Swallows were still fighting 

 for possession. About every other nest was then occupied by the Sparrows. 



The Osprey is not only one of the most remarkable nest-builders in the world, but a 

 -wonderful adept in making the most of its opportunities. In selecting a site for its 

 mountain of a nest, it seems at times to exercise little choice, taking whatever offers. 

 Apparently its controlling ambition is to raise a huge edifice in the construction of which 

 nothing comes amiss which can be seized and carried in its powerful talons. In its build- 

 ing operations this bird seems to have an eye for the centuries rather than the years, and 

 some of its eyries formed on 

 rocky crags have possibly ex- 

 isted for more than a hundred 

 years, or might last so long if 

 undisturbed by man. This 

 Hawk will nest on the ground, 

 on rocks, in low or high trees, 

 in woods or in the open, on a 

 chimney, a pile of rails, a rock- 

 ing buoy, or a dilapidated 

 windmill. It will even suffer 

 its nest to be displaced, and at 

 Bristol, Rhode Island, it eager- 

 ly appropriates the cart wheel 

 which the hospitable farmers 

 raise aloft on the tops of poles 

 for the benefit of these birds. 



At Plum Island, New 

 York, which was formerly col- 

 onized by hundreds of Os- 

 preys, Mr. Allen found their 

 nests in almost every conceivable situation, about thirty or forty per cent, of them being 

 on the ground. " High rocks on the shore, and low rocks far out in the water, scarcely 

 above high tide and swept by the autumn storms, were chosen as situations for the nests. 

 A large buoy, with a lattice work top, near the west end of Fisher's Island, was also 

 -occupied for many years by a nest of these birds, greatly to the advantage of sailors and 

 fishermen, who were warned in thick weather of the position of the buoy by the screaming 

 of the Fish Hawks." ' 



An observer who described a nest on an old windmill said that while the fan of the 

 mill was gone "the rudder remained, and the wind catching this would swing the nest 

 part way round, and then the wind changing slightly would swing it back again ; the sit- 

 ting female not seeming to mind the movement in the least." ^ 



On the shore of Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, which has been colonized by Fish 



' " Breeding Habits of Ihe Fish Hawk on Plum Island Ne\\' York." C. S. Allen, TIu- Auk, vol. ix,, p. S15. 1S92. 

 ■^ The Osprey, vol. ii., p. 55. Many interesting pictures of nests of the Osprey have been ])ublished in this 

 anagazine. 



Fig. 112. Female Kingbird inserting an insect into the throat of a fledgling. 



