T 
286 
1876. 
Circus hudsonius. 
Middlesex County, Mass , 
(May 32)i|, The male sitting on a tussock near whore I sa'fr him 
plunging yesterday. 
24. 
Juno 5, 
Upon approaching the portion of Rock Meadow where I 
saw the male Marsh Hawk plunging the other day and peeping 
out through the fringe of bushes that bordered it I was 
delighted to find the old birds at work on their nest, 
the female sitting on a stake the male collecting dry 
grass and carrying it to a particular spot among scan© 
l©w-bushes, v/horo he would drop, disappearing from my 
sight, and after remaining about half a minute start off 
again. Frequently he would go not more than thirty 
feet in search of materials and never more than one hun¬ 
dred yards. The female only v/’ent to the nest once dur¬ 
ing the hour that I spent v/atching them. Both birds kept 
up an incessant calling to one another a shrill squealing 
que-que-.q.ue very different from any note I have ever 
heard this species utter before. As nearly as I could 
make out the male used his feet only in carying the 
grass. Finally he soared up high into the sky and dis¬ 
appeared. The female followed v/hen I approached the 
nest and found a large shapeless mass of dry grass col¬ 
lected on a rise of the meadow. 
Visited my Marsh Hav^ks nest on Rock Meadow to-day; 
the female rose when I was within about fifteen yards of 
the nest and made directly off screaming shrilly quee- 
quee-quee until I shot her. There v/ere four eggs, 
spotles, one tinged slightly with green; the nest was 
placed on the ground on a dry, slightly elevated portion 
of the meadow at the edge of a small clupp of bushap 
but not actually among them. There was scarcely any de¬ 
pression in the centre where the eggs lay and the whole 
affair looked flat, slovenly , and unkempt. Although 
the grasses composing the lining—if lining it cound be 
called—were perhaps “circularly arranged* they ceriainly 
wore not “interwoven*. This lining yms ecmposed wholly 
of dry grass and contained neither feathers nor any oth¬ 
er material* The exterior v/as of sticks many of them 
large and coarse. Propping up the dead female on the 
nest, I concealed myself in a thicket of bushes near to 
atwait the return of the male. In the course of perhaps 
ten minutes I heard his kep-kep-kep overhead and looking 
up, discovered him sailing at an immense height, so high, 
indeed, that ho looked no larger than a Barn Swallow. 
A Crow Y/as whirling about him and a Red-shouldered Hawk 
sailing apparently in his company; the trio soon mel¬ 
ted out of sight in the distance and the Hawk did not 
return, although I lay in ambush for more than an hour 
longer. Two of the eggs proved to be perfectly fresh; 
the other two slightly incubated. The stomach of the 
female bird contained nearly a whole field mouse; among 
the intestines were a few small whitish worms. 
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