green of the oaks and pines which cover the hillside behind 
Heavy flight 
of Hawks 
and above them. Most of the bright coloring on Martha 1 s 
Point was supplied by the hickories which have now generally 
put on their old gold tints. 
This was a Hawk day. I saw seven Sharp-shins, 
two Cooper’s, three Marsh Hawks, one Pigeon Hawk, two Red¬ 
shouldered and one Red-tailed Hawk. With the exception of 
one of the Red-shouldered, which was perched on a tree,all 
these birds were flying, not in any one direction but 
scaling, soaring in circles, or beating up against the strong- 
wind, by short vertical tacks, now rising to meet the blasts_ 
for half a mile or more on a gentle incline 
or to gain sufficient elevation to skim off/towards the 
earth. Of course it was a migratory flight — a Hawk wave 
which had rolled down to us from the north but, as already 
stated, the birds were not apparently prosecuting their 
southward journey when seen by me. Nor was there any indi¬ 
cation that they were looking for food. They seemed rather 
to be roaming aimlessly over the country and sporting with 
the high wind. The Sharp-shins soared a great deal more 
than is usual with them. One bird of this species was an 
old male in very high plumage. As he swept close over the 
water of Fairhaven while I was standing on the cliff, his 
back looked as blue almost as that of an old male Marsh 
Hawk. We saw an unusually fine Marsh Hawk, by the way, 
beating a small meadow near the river. He looked nearly as 
white as a Gull and, as on former occasions this autumn, 
reminded me forcibly of a Gull by his flight. 
a 
