100 
THE CONDOR 
Vol. XV 
across the meadow, for some time. As he rises upward he 'calls four or five short 
squeaky-sounding notes, ‘‘eh — eh — eh — eh — eh", but when he flaps downward 
again, he is silent. The female usually sits silently watching the performance, 
but occasionally calls to him with a loud scream. If he flies too far away, she 
sometimes leaves her ])erch and sails silently after him to a point where she can 
get a nearer view of his performance. 
Nesting in this region evidently begins in the latter part of May. I first ob- 
served the pair, whose nest is the subject of this study, in the vicinity of where 
they nested on May 22. The nest was not found until May 27, when it contained 
hut a single egg, evidently just laid. The nest was merely a hollow in the ground 
lined with a few grasses, and located under a thick clump of cinciuefoil bushes. 
Another nest of this species was found May 26 with a single egg, so that this is 
probably about the average time when nesting of this species begins in this re- 
gion. This other nest was built 
of small sticks, lined with grass- 
es, and placed in the midst of a 
cattail marsh. 
Eggs are not laid daily, but 
evidently at irregular intervals 
averaging about once in two 
days. The first nest, found Ma}' 
27, had still but one egg on the 
evening of May 28. I was 
away from the vicinity from 
that date until June 6, but on 
my return found five eggs in the 
nest, and on a second visit that 
evening, six eggs. The sixth 
egg completed the set. 
During the jieriod from June 
6 to 30 the female incubated al- 
most constantly ; in fact I never 
went to the nest when she was 
not there. The male bird did 
not incubate at all, to my knowl- 
edge, as the male of this species 
is sometimes said to do. He 
was usually in the vicinity of the 
nest, l''ut sometimes away hunt- 
ing. 26. Nest and Incomplete Set of Eggs of 
THE Marsh Hawk; Photo Taken June 6, 1912, 
NE-lr Chouteau, Montana 
ing. Both birds were always much disturbed at my presence, but the male was 
much the more aggressive. This was also true of the birds at the second nest 
mentioned above. The male usually saw me when I w'as a considerable distance 
from the nest, and flew toward me, circling about my head, and calling “eh — eh — 
eh — eh — eh”, at short intervals. As I got nearer the nest he grew^ bolder, ami 
often swoo])ed at my head. He never actually struck me in these swoops, but 
often came within two or three feet, and I believe he might have struck me wdth 
his feet, had I not fre(|uentlv w'aved my hat or camera tripod at him, wdiich had 
the effect of somewdiat decreasing the ardor of his attacks. In his attacks he 
usually circled till fairly close to me, then with a sudden, savage twist in his flight, 
lowered his feet as though to strike me wdth them, and swmoped directly at my 
head. The female did not rise from the nest until I was ten or fifteen feet away. 
