I carefully saved l~2^~n ~ ^ — — = 
I The one represented here measured 3f x ^he one was a trifle smaller 
4X The nest was situated in the open 
3f X2 
egg of sandiull crane-: 
■exact size. 
on . hand rad, naed bj ftn"^ torc.^r^g '“t “ “ ™ 
® “Oo"* 12 fool .n length bg 2J i„ .„d 
w 
■“ H AR- 
pDHILL CRANE. 
Eeb. 19 , issr. 
Mar. 19, 1868. 
Mar. 16, 1859, 
Mar. 8, I860. 
Apr- 2,1861. 
Mar. 2 ", 1862. 
Mar. 31, 1863. 
Apr. 12, 1864. 
Mar. 20,-1866 
Apr. 3, 1866. 
Mar. 25, 1861. 
Mar. 13, 1868. 
Mar. 28, 1869. 
■ Mar. 31, 1810. 
Mar. 9, isn. 
Mar. -28, 1872. 
Mar. 19, 1873. 
Alar. 20, 1874. 
Mar. 27, 1875. 
Apr. ;8, 1876. 
Mar. 30. 1877. 
Mar. 15, 1878. I 
Apr. 9, 1879. i 
Mar. 30, 1880. I 
-Mar. 29, 1881. I 
Mar. 1 , 1882. I 
Mar. 13, 1883. i 
-Dr IT A Mar. 13,1 
- H. A. Atkins, Locke. Michigan. 
The Marsh Hawk and Its Eggs. 
PART 11. 
Early and authentic mention has been 
made of large sets of eggs of Circus hud- 
sonius. But the reference on Page 115 of 
Brewer’s N. Am. Oology (Smithsonian, 
1858,) to clutches of eleven, twelve and 
thirteen, with their misty data, may now 
be dismissed from the record. Some ac- 
count of a nest of seven can be found in 
the O. and O., Page 14, Vol. VI. Last 
year, in his fresh Northwestern field, Capt. 
Bendire took a set of seven plain eggs. 
The same season, I took an extreme set of 
seven covered with showy markings. May 
14, 1882, the nest had four eggs, and it held 
' seven fresh eggs when taken. May 21. The 
three added eggs were bluer than the 
' others, but the first part of the clutch had 
the best markings. These were not the 
T: mere “ accidental deposits of lymph,” re- 
12, ( f erred to by the late Dr. Brewer as liable 
plaq to appear on all plain eggs. But they pre- 
and' sen ted a good supierficial design and the 
or ri cloudy sub-shell coloring seen on average 
(wan sets of Eed-shouldered Hawks. May 20, 
1883, secured another set of five nicely 
marked eggs from this pair of Hawks. In 
/ f 
' ■■ Cikcus IIUDSONIUS : First set of four May 18, 
second set of five -Tune 2, and third sot of three 
.Tune 18, Long Society. May 18, two sets of fives. 
Broad Brook and Ayer’sPactiwv. May 23,^trf 
five. North Stonington. ^ 
O.&o. X. Feb. 1885. 
CP 
.A. • 
May, 1882, I took clutches of Cooper’s 
Hawk handsomely spotted, and on corres- 
ponding dates in 1883, from the same 
birds similar sets. This, with other data 
at hand, tends to show that the Accipiters 
and Marsh Hawks which lay plain sets one 
year will lay plain sets the next year, and 
that those that lay the prized marked sets 
may fairly be counted on to do so in sue 
cessive seasons. Though this has been 
doubted by some authorities, with whom I 
still have a bone to pick, yet I can show it 
to be the rule among the Buteos, by exten 
sive yearly series of eggs from the same 
localities. Individual shapes will also be 
found to obtain among the eggs of our 
resident Raptores. Dr. Coues says the 
eggs are “ not certainly distinguishable ” 
from Cooper’s, (vide Birds of the North- 
west, Page 337.) Yet in a series of both. 
Marsh Hawks can be seen to be smaller, 
without measurements — only now and then 
does a set appear to be as large as Cooper's. 
Our Harrier will not allow the liberties we 
take with the nests of the Accipiters — no- 
tably the Sharp-shinned. If egg No. 1 is 
taken the others will be laid elsewhere. 
Last season, by my merely looking at her 
first egg laid, though never handling it, a 
Preston HawL deserted the nest, and laid 
the other four eggs in a remote wooded 
part of the marsh, where they were taken 
only after long and careful search. 
The Marsh Hawk is, perhaps, the most 
noiseless of our breeding rapacise. Some 
individuals have an intonation of the Pish 
Hawk, but in general the cry approaches 
more nearly that of the Cooper. To those 
who only know the subject of this sketch 
as the skimmer of the meadow's, floating 
and quartering spaniel-like over brushy 
lowlands, he will hardly seem like a being 
of the upper air. Tet he has his aspira- 
tions, as we may see. In the forenoon of 
May 9, 1878, (an exceptionally early sea- 
son,) I took three sets of eggs of Marsh 
Hawk in North Stonington ; and in, those 
wide meadows, where there were no trees 
Raptores, BristolCounty, Mass. 
' Hilton B. Read. 
Marsh Hawk {Circus hudsnnius) . This species 
is common in summer and has been observed 
in -winter. 
Its nest has been found commonly and differ- 
ing ;from all other hawks it buiids on the 
ground, usnaily in some clump of low bushes, 
on a hummock, near low meadows and marshes. 
The eggs are laid about the second week in 
May, and a complete set numbers five, and 
in some instances six. but principally the 
former. 
'I'he food of the Iiawk consists of frogs, mice 
and other “humble game” in search of whicli lie 
may be seen quartering over tlie meadows or 
following some winding course of a brook, in- 
tent upon securing some unlucky batrachian. 
This hawk is represented in all sections of 
the county and reports of the nesting have 
been received from nearly every town, conclu- 
sively proving it to be one of our most common 
raptores. 
0,&0. XII. Aug. 1887 P.1I8 
Feb., 1884.] AND OC 
or w'oody glades for the Hawks to steal be- 
hind, the females, after being flushed and 
shot at, would be joined by the males and 
hang for hours far overhead, mere specks 
in the sky, seemingly above the loftiest 
flights of the Buteos. — J. M. IP., Nor- 
loich, Gonn.O.&,0. IX.Feb.lSBA.p./t-zy 
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