OF VIRGINIA 211 
shore of Long Island Sound and the lower Hudson Valley 
west to the Alleghenies and south to the uplands of 
Georgia, Alabama, and eastern Tennessee; winters mainly 
south of the Delaware Valley. 
If one really wants to see these birds at all seasons of 
the year, I know of no better place or larger rookery than 
the National Cemetery connected with the National 
Soldiers’ Home at Hampton, Virginia. For vears, vast 
numbers have used the firs and evergreens in the cemetery 
for a roosting place in winter, while numbers use the 
same trees and surrounding ones after foliage has come 
out, for nesting sites. One standing outside the high 
brick wall surrounding the cemetery, will be astonished 
at the racket or noise the vast multitude of birds can pro- 
duce after coming in to roost, while for over an hour 
before dark each evening, flock after flock passes over our 
head en route for the rookery. As the gates are closed at 
night and no one is allowed to molest them they return 
to it year after year as a safe haven. This species is, 
however, fairly well distributed over our entire section. 
On the islands off our coast they nest in the pines with 
the Ospreys, and in cedar trees with Green Herons and 
Fish Crows. Often on Hog, Smith, and Mock Horn 
islands have I found that these birds had built their nests 
among the large sticks in the side of the Osprey’s nest, 
neither molesting the other. The nest is composed of 
coarse grass, weed stems, and straw, lined with fine 
grasses. Tall cedars and pine trees are their favorite 
locations; some nests in the latter trees I have found as 
high as 40 feet up, while on the other hand, a colony in 
a small swamp, built in bushes, none over ten feet up. 
Large numbers are shot during the winter months, 
