122 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



but I tore my clothes, got pitched all over, and found 

 only squirrel; yet they have, no doubt, a nest there- 

 abouts. 1 



May 14, 1857. See. a pair of marsh hawks, the smaller 

 and lighter-colored male, with black tips to wings, and 

 the large brown female, sailing low over J. Hosmer's 

 sprout-land and screaming, apparently looking for frogs 

 or the like. Or have they not a nest near? They 

 hover very near me. The female, now so near, sails 

 very grandly, with the outer wing turned or tilted up 

 when it circles, and the bars on its tail when it turns, 

 etc., reminding me of a great brown moth. Sometimes 

 alone; and when it approaches its mate it utters a low, 

 grating note like cur-r-r. Suddenly the female holds 

 straight toward me, descending gradually. Steadily she 

 comes on, without swerving, until only two rods off, 

 then wheels. 



Oct. 28, 1857. I look up and see a male marsh hawk 

 with his clean-cut wings, that has just skimmed past 

 above my head, — not at all disturbed, only tilting his 

 body a little, now twenty rods off, with demi-semi-quaver 

 of his wings. He is a very neat flyer. 



April 19, 1 858. Spend the day hunting for my boat, 

 which was stolen. As I go up the riverside, I see a male 

 marsh hawk hunting. He skims along exactly over the 

 edge of the water, on the meadowy side, not more than 

 three or four feet from the ground and winding with 

 the shore, looking for frogs, for in such a tortuous line 

 do the frogs sit. They probably know about what time 



1 [Later, as will be seen, he learned that marsh hawks' nests are not 

 to be looked for in trees.] 



