104 



THE OOLOG1ST. 



The Quail Trap. 



Housekeeping is over with our seven 

 species of resident hawks, except with a 

 few of the late Accipiters and harriers. 

 The fluffy young redtails I have seen 

 afield appear larger than the old buteos. 

 Dozens of Red-shoulders are out of the 

 nest, and with their parents are just 

 now very silent foragers. The early 

 launcher in Fisheis island sound can see 

 trios of eaglets balancing on the spind- 

 les, dreading the first essay with their 

 long wings, but soon to be pushed off 

 the huge nests by the old ospreys, when 

 they must fly, or get a salt bath. A 

 laborer on a farm in Bristol threw t\ro 

 eaglets from their nest to the ground 

 to die. The angry ospreys have since 

 followed, made such threatening: dashes 

 and so pecked at the man that he could 

 not work, and he was discharged. New 

 help was at once hired, and the birds 

 quieted down seemingly satisfied with 

 their revenge. From my own exper- 

 ience I should say that this was not a 

 fish story, for I knew a Noank man 

 who climbed to a fish-hawk's nest and 

 had his straw hat seized by the fierce 

 talons and dropped in the middle of the 

 Sound. The only wonder is that the 

 hat was not added to the olla podrida 

 in the catch all of a nest. 



The portable saw mills have made so 

 many gaps in the cordon of bier timber 

 that used to surround Norwich, that ob- 

 servers have feared the birds of prey 

 would be driven away from this vicin- 

 ity. Partly to allay these fears and 

 partly to visit my old friends, I have 

 visited nearly all the scattered groves 

 that are left fit for nidification, and I 

 can report more favorably than would 

 seem possible. There are still breed- 

 ing pairs of Red-shoulders in Rock- 

 well's at Spalding's dam. Cobb's city 

 reservoir, Bowen hollow, Whip-poor- 

 will ledge, Hearthstone mountain, 

 McCall'shill, Bashan, Wauwecus Barry- 

 town Leffingwell Paradise woods Mohe- 



gan, Sunnyside, The Commons, Brick- 

 yard, Hell Gate, Cindy's cedar swamp, 

 McClimon's, Benjamin's, Bundy hill 

 and Zion hill. On the Baltic road Al. 

 Lillibridge reports that the Red-should- 

 ers breed in the time honored sites and 

 Barred owls were raised "in the same 

 old stub." It is worth noting that un- 

 der too frequent observation these 

 buteos will line and feather two or 

 thr^e old nests before deciding- where 

 to lay. Trios were the rule with these 

 sets this season, there being only two 

 sets of normal nest washed fours. 



The eyries of the Redtails are in a 

 periphery just outside the circle of its 

 cogeners. I find pairs of the largest 

 buteos still at home at Ayer's moun- 

 tain, Lamb's woods, Blue hill. Gardner 

 lake, Kingsley's woods. Montville, 

 Spicer ledges, Gungawamp, Lantern 

 hill, Broad brook, Rix road woods, 

 Brown's mountain and in three groves 

 in Lisbon, in one in Sprague and in two 

 in Canterbury. May day a North Ston- 

 ington farmer brought me an old Red- 

 tail which he had trapped on a nest 

 holding two young and an addled egg. 

 On cutting the thong from one of the 

 hawk's feet, the claw quickly seized 

 the farmer's hand, and on freeing the 

 other leg the talons at once sank deep- 

 ly into the farmer's wrist. The hawk 

 was at once placed in an empty pheas- 

 ant coop, with the intention of carrying 

 it towards its native woods the next 

 day. But the hawk secured its own 

 freedom by twisting with its powerful 

 grasp the wires which had been proof 

 against many dogs. The old hawk 

 waited a moment in an apple tree, as 

 if to get his bearings, and then, after 

 soaring a little at a mile-a-minute clip 

 straight over Scalpingtown towards the 

 Anguilla district. 



Marsh hawk also girdle the city in 

 about the same numbers as the Red- 

 tails, and their homes are not often 

 broken up by the farmers and choppers. 

 I visited the bogs named below, and 



