THE ROBBERS OF THE FALLS 



and seldom nests in this region. I have seen many 

 nests in the South, and it is probable that most of 

 those we see have wandered up thence after the nest- 

 ing season. The small Pigeon Hawk is a common 

 migrant. 



The Osprey breeds in colonies in a few places along 

 the seacoast. They are beloved and protected, and 

 build on isolated trees on farms, often right in the door- 

 yard of a house. I only wish they would build in a tree 

 on my front lawn! Any person who tried to molest 

 them would find me looking for trouble. The nests are 

 as big as haycocks and look out of place up in the trees. 

 They are made of large sticks and all sorts of rubbish. 

 One that I examined had an old umbrella woven into 

 it, another an old dried dead hen! I sat in the nest 

 myself, though, and found it very comfortable. But it 

 is hard getting there. You come up underneath, and 

 the thing bulges out beyond you like a balloon, and 

 there seems no easy way to get up on top. 



Hunting Marsh Hawks' nests is very different from 

 this other "hawking." They build on the ground in a 

 bushy swamp or wet pasture, and one has to tramp 

 around at random until he comes within a few steps of 

 the sitting bird. She will fly up and go through an 

 astonishing performance of diving at one's head and 

 screaming, but I never knew one to actually strike. 



Then there is the little Sparrow Hawk which stays 

 with us only in small numbers, nesting in hollow trees 

 or in Flickers' holes along the borders of farms, or in 



S3 



