The Hawks of ’ 83 , 
The first March walks in the woods 
showed that many of the old hawks’ nests 
were “winter killed?” Weakened and 
disintegrated by the action of the 
constant snow and ice, they had been 
tumbled from the trees by the last fierce 
breath of winter. So at the outset it was 
clear that to secure the annual complement 
of eggs would involve wider and closer 
search than usual. Though shadowing 
them closely, I was finally baffled as to the 
nesting-places of several pairs of these 
evicted hawks, and the season’s work gave 
but eighty eggs against over 100 for the 
year before. Still the hawks were as com- 
mon as ever and will continue so, doubt- 
less, as long as their chief quarry the red 
squirrel is so abundant here. In this se- 
ries the sets of Bed- tailed were all in parrs, 
and the Bed-shouldered all in trios — the 
Bed-tailed of course being larger and less 
showily marked. In average sets of bo- 
realis one egg will be plain and the other 
nearly so, while in a large series of Bed- 
shouldered there will be some half dozen 
types constantly recurring, many grada- 
tions, and a few sets of absolute brilliancy. 
Though the season was cold and late, the 
Bed-tailed bred as early as usual, while its 
congener showed itself as heretofore af- 
fected by extreme weather in the breeding 
season. 
In blowing the incubated eggs of Ii. 
lineatus, three sets were found which held 
one stale egg each. It is not clear that 
cold or wet caused this, but it is true that 
a wet season makes the Buteo’s eggs dull 
and nest-stained. A single heavy rain, oc- 
curring when the clutch is just laid, affects 
their brightness and beauty. And full 
sets suffer by comparison with single eggs 
taken when laid, as every day of exposure 
fades all hawk’s eggs. So the series of ’83 
is uninteresting and dull as a whole, while 
82, which was a dry season, presents a 
uniformly showy lot. To remove nest- 
stains is not easy. If freshly laid the 
markings will at once wash out of the eggs 
of Fish Hawks and Buteos, so the corner 
of a damp cloth only should be used on 
the plain surface between the markings. 
Dr. Wood says soap and water are cheap 
and should be freely used. But as egg- 
shells are porous, soap is at once absorbed 
in the shell and afterwards when heated 
comes out over the surface in yellow, waxy 
exudations. 
The Buteo’s eggs of this season were all 
from the old haunts of last year, and pre- 
sumably most of them were from hawks’ 
which had been often robbed. I also took 
sets of Cooper’s Hawks and Marsh Hawks 
from old birds grown wary by the loss of 
many clutches. Tuesday, June 26, I took 
a set of three bright eggs of Sharp- 
shinned Hawk from a new nest in a secluded 
swamp after leaving them vainly seven 
days for a larger set. A pair of Sharp- 
shinned with unfledged young were shot 
in a hemlock clump within the city limits, 
in July this year, by milkmen, who nailed 
the hapless family on the side of a barn as 
scare-crows. Now, if I had only gone 
through the grove in June, as I always 
have done in former years, the old birds 
might be alive to-day, and my collection 
the richer by one more set of Sharp- 
shinned hawk’s eggs. — J. M. W. Nor- 
wich, Conn , O.&O. Vlll, Nov. 1883. p. W 
