608 
Another common ‘‘hen-hawk,’’ nearly 
as large, is the red-shouldered hawk, dis- 
tinguished {by its striped tail and clear, 
loud, whistling scream which differs from 
the harsher wheezy squeal of its relative. 
It is the more numerous within twenty 
miles of the coast, while the ‘‘red-tail’’ is 
the more abundant farther inland, especi- 
ally in hilly country. The “‘red-shoulder” 
likes low or swampy woods, and builds a 
large nest in a pine, oak or chestnut tree, 
usually from forty to fifty feet up, having 
fresh eggs from the 15th to 20th of April, 
or earlier. 
From the 5th to the roth of May is the 
proper time to look for nests of the Coop- 
er’s hawk, marsh hawk and osprey. The 
first is the quick, dashing fellow of medium 
size, with a long tail, that the farmers call 
“chicken hawk,” the most destructive of 
the tribe, the scourge of poultry, wild 
game, and of all the smaller birds. It likes 
a retired grove or tract of moderately tall 
trees, and usually builds about 40 feet up a 
white pine or chesnut. The marsh hawk, 
or harrier, is a harmless creature that lives 
on frogs and mice, and builds its nest on 
the ground in a bushy swamp, where it is 
The New Sport of “ Hawking” 
very hard to find. This is the bird with 
long wings and a white band on the upper 
rump, at the roots of the tail, which quar- 
ters back and forth low over the meadows. 
No one ought ever to shoot it, and, of 
course, this is true also of the osprey, or 
fish hawk, that makes an enormous nest 
on a big tree or dead stump out in open 
ground near the sea or other body of 
water, often on some farm, near the house. 
Every farmer prizes such confidence, and 
woe to the fool gunner who tries to molest 
his ospreys. 
Latest of all come another trio, the 
broad-winged, sharp-shinned and sparrow 
hawks, which begin incubation about May 
15-20, or even later. The first isa medium 
sized, sedate, rather slovenly creature, 
more plenty to the north of Massachusetts 
than further south, related to the red- 
shoulder and red-tail in the genus 
‘“‘Buteo,” or ‘‘buzzard-hawk.” It fixes 
over an old squirrel’s nest, at moderate 
height in a pine or chestnut tree, being 
generally too lazy to build for itself, and 
too indolent to do much harm. 
Very different is the fiery little sharp- 
shinned hawk, a relative of the Cooper’s, 
Young Marsh Hawks as They Appeared After I Had Aroused Them. 
