356 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
twigs, placed in a fork or crotch next to the trunk. The eggs, 
about four in number, are laid near Boston, in the second week 
of May. They measure 1:50 1-25 of an inch or less, and are 
white (tinged with blue or green), sometimes unmarked, but 
more often with a few large and prominent markings of dark 
brown, chiefly near the crown. 
(c). The Sharp-shinned Hawks are common summer-resi- 
dents throughout New England, but near Boston, so far as I 
have observed, are extremely rare in winter, though I have 
seen one boldly perched on the shafts of a wagon in a shed. 
Though naturally shy, they are very impudent, and, trusting 
to the rapidity of their flight, often commit some daring rob- 
bery before the eyes of the farmer. They frequent the woods 
much more than the Sparrow Hawk, and lie in wait there for 
some unfortunate passer-by: Should a Robin make his ap- 
pearance, they give chase, and though he fly never so quickly, 
they soon overtake him. Sometimes, as they pass through the 
woods, they perceive some innocent bird feeding on the ground, 
_ Whom they seize and bear off almost before the traveler can 
realize what has happened. So great is their eagerness and 
daring that their victims can hardly find any refuge from their 
fury. Nuttall says in illustration of their impetuous violence 
that “descending furiously and blindly upon its quarry, a 
young Hawk of this species broke through the glass of the 
green-house at the Cambridge Botanic Garden, and fearlessly 
passing through a second glass partition, he was only brought 
up by the third, and caught, though little stunned by the ef- 
fort. His wing-feathers were much torn by the glass, and his 
flight in this way so impeded as to allow of his being ap- 
proached.” The Sharp-shinned Hawk characterizes all his 
movements with the same speed and continual apparent haste, 
the same restlessness and impetuosity. He often flies far, and 
even at a great height, but much less often straight forward or 
with a regular beat of the wings than the Pigeon Hawk. 
When flying to a distance, his flappings are quick but some- 
what irregular, but, when hunting, he moves nervously, now 
high, now low, now to the right, now to the left, rarely having 
