90 
ORNITflOLOGIST 
[Vol. G-No. 12. 
plete. Marsh Hawks frequently begin to 
set with the first egg and the young appear 
at intervals. Both our Accipiters sit on the 
edge of the nest or remain close at hand 
until a good sized clutch is laid. The ear¬ 
liest egg I ever knew laid was on May 15th, 
the very first full clutch on May 23d, but 
the time to look for complete sets is about 
the first of June. The first clutch is almost 
always five in number and will oftener run 
over than under. But if the eggs are taken 
successively as laid the normal cliuch may 
run up over a dozen—perhaps to fifteen or j 
eighteen. If, however, the ovaries are thus j 
overta.xed in one season my experience is 
that the foicing process will not be repeat 
ed the following year. Of the fifteen 
Laurel Hill eggs referred to above, eleven 
were taken in succession from one nest 
without a nest egg, when a new nest was 
built and four more eggs laid. The fol¬ 
lowing season, in June, 1 found the nest 
with three eggs which were taken I think 
by Crows, two pairs of which were breeding 
in adjoining trees. Deserting nest num¬ 
ber one, on account of the black neighbors, 
her second nest, also in a hemlock, the fe¬ 
male betrayed to me before finishing as 
usual by scolding. Took two eggs and 
substituted two Pigeon’s eggs, when she 
laid two more and began sitting on the Pig¬ 
eon’s eggs. Thus her clutch the next year 
after the big set was but seven. Another 
female which gave me eighteen eggs in ii>8o 
gave but seven in the year 1881. 
Through my notes of 1880, let us look a 
little in detail at the great clutch of eigh¬ 
teen and its environment. From the nest 
in a pine grove four eggs were taken the 
week ending .May 23d. /I'he next morning 
boys Crow-hunting tore down the nest. 
Before night a new nest resembling a Night 
Heron’s was constructed in the same grove 
and three eggs taken the second week By 
the middle of the third week two more eggs 
were taken, and a Pigeon’s egg substituted, 
from which were taken successively as laid 
nine more eggs. The early morning of ev¬ 
ery alternate day was the rule for a fresh 
egg. The longest break in the series was 
from June 2d to June 6th. The seven¬ 
teenth and last egg in the direct line was 
laid on June 21st, and when taken the nest 
was deserted, neither bird being seen for 
several days. On the 25th, the female ven¬ 
tured back, and apparently as an after¬ 
thought or a “ positively the last " trial-egg, 
laid just one more. But as this egg also 
was taken, the Hawks in strong Billingsgate 
said good by for the season. After paying 
my morning respects to this nest and its 
owmers four or five times a week for more 
than a month, it goes without saying to the 
lover of nature that I missed the pleasant 
routine—missed my tri-weekly egg, and 
missed the familiar alarm of the birds who 
would begin to scold in their clattering, 
niowing-machine like voice when their call¬ 
er was thirty rods away. The tiny male 
was especially bold, frecjuently in his brave 
dashes sweeping my face with his wings as 
I climbed the well-worn natural ladder. 
Disparity in size between paired Accipiters 
is sometimes laughahle, and I could cite my 
all-summer friends of 1880 as an extreme 
case in point. I renewed acquaintance with 
this pair for two weeks only in 1881, in the 
same haunts, taking seven eggs from a new 
nest not seven feet from the ground using 
a runt hen’s egg for a persuader, 
j “But,” says my scientific friend, “the 
eggs of your great clutch are of no great 
value; they are not typical, are not normal, 
should be undersized and with scant lymph, 
and may have been infertile.” We will de¬ 
lay a moment and see what ground there is 
for your grave charges. Your domestic 
fowls lay you a dozen eggs or so, then 
would cover them and hatch their broods 
in due course; but you take their eggs 
successively as laid and they lay all sum¬ 
mer. Well, are not the added eggs typical.’ 
.•\nd normal? .Are they undersized or out 
of proportion to the first part of the set, 
and don’t they produce young? Now by 
measurement 1 find that my added Accipi¬ 
ters are no smaller than the first four taken 
and are as well colored and shaped. In- 
