THE MARSH HAWK 



A MABSH hawk's NEST, A TOUNG HAWK, AND A 

 VISIT TO A QUAIL ON HEE NEST 



Most country boys, I fancy, know the marsh 

 hawk. It is he you see flying low over the fields, 

 beating about bushes and marshes and dipping 

 over the fences, with his attention directed to 

 the ground beneath him. He is a cat on wings. 

 He keeps so low that the birds and mice do not 

 see him till he is fairly upon them. The hen-hawk 

 swoops down upon the meadow-mouse from his 

 position high in air, or from the top of a dead 

 tree ; but the marsh hawk stalks him and comes 

 suddenly upon him from over the fence, or from 

 behind a low bush or tuft of grass. He is nearly 

 as large as the hen-hawk, but has a much longer 

 tail. When I was a boy I used to call him the 

 long-tailed hawk. The male is of a bluish slate- 

 color; the female reddish-brown, like the hen- 

 hawk, with a white rump. 



Unlike the other hawks, they nest on the 

 ground in low, thick marshy places. For several 

 seasons a pair have nested in a bushy marsh a 

 few miles back of me, near the house of a farmer 

 friend of mine, who has a keen eye for the wild 



