-V/* . ■ 
Hawks and 
XXX'/< /?4f% 
id Owls. — Princeton. 1,1 — 
p. So2~. 
111 . — ' Editor Amei'ican 
Field : — I recently killed a fine specimen of Cooper’s hawk. 
It measured thirty-four inches across the wings ; length, in- 
cluding tail, eighteen inches ; length of tail eight and one- 
half inches. The owl was sitting on her nest which was 
nearly as large as a bushel basket, composed of small sticks 
and lined with the rough outside bark of the white oak tree. 
The nest contained four pale blue eggs, fully as large as 
bantam eggs. Her crop was well filled with the remains 
of a ground squirrel. By the way I do not think the ex- 
amination of hawks’ crops in this country would be a j ust 
criterion of w T hat the hawk eats, for the quail is very sel- 
dom seen here. I do not think they would average two to 
the square mile, taking the country over. If quails were 
as plenty as ground squirrels I think they would be found 
in hawks’ crops as often as the squirrels. Once, while pass- 
ing through a piece of timber, I heard the whir of wings, 
and on looking up I saw a Cooper’s hawk in pursuit of a 
quail. They were about thirty feet apart, and the race 
seemed to be about even, but poor Bob knew it was a race 
for life, and when he had passed some forty yards he 
dropped in the center of a brush heap without slacking his 
speed, and the noise he made while disappearing was like a 
stone thrown into the heap. I examined the place and 
found the brush lined with feathers. The quail probably 
escaped one enemy only to find another. One snowy day 
in February I saw a Coopers hawk strike and kill a tame 
pigeon on the barn ; the hawk was not able to carry its 
prey away and prepared to devour it on the spot, but a 
charge of shot stopped his career. While the hawks have 
young to feed they are troublesome to the poultry raiser, 
for when they discover a hen with chickens about the size 
of quails they will return day after day till all are gone. 
The young hawks are able to fly about the middle of July. 
George Greene. 
