124 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



of them one and seven tenths inches long, and not 

 " spherical," as Brewer says, but broad in proportion 

 to length. 1 



June, 8, 1858. The marsh hawk's eggs are not yet 

 hatched. She rises when I get within a rod and utters 

 that peculiar cackling or scolding note, much like, but 

 distinct from, that of the pigeon woodpecker. She keeps 

 circling over the nest and repeated^ stoops within a 

 rod of my head ip. an angry manner. She is not so 

 large as a hen-hawk, and is much more slender. She 

 will come sailing swiftly and low over the tops of the 

 trees and bushes, etc., and then stoop as near to my 

 head as she dares, in order to scare me away. The 

 primaries, of which I count but five, are very long and 

 loose, or distant, like fingers with which she takes hold 

 of the air, and form a very distinct part of the wing, 

 making an angle with the rest. Yet they are not broad 

 and give to the wing a long and slender appearance. 

 The legs are stretched straight back under the tail. 2 I 

 see nothing of the male, nor did I before. A red-wing 

 and a kingbird are soon in pursuit of the hawk, which 

 proves, I think, that she meddles with their nests or 

 themselves. She circles over me, scolding, as far as the 

 edge of the wood, or fifteen rods. 



June 17, 1858. P. M.— To hawk's nest. 



One egg is hatched since the 8th, and the young bird, 

 all down, with a tinge of fawn or cinnamon, lies motion- 



1 Another is one and seven eighths inches long by one and a half 

 inches. 



2 [This is the habitual manner of carrying the legs in flight among 

 the birds of prey and some other orders. See Dr. G. W. Townsend's 

 paper in the Auk, April, 1909, vol. xxvi, p. 109.] 



