18 HEA U'D-UB ONS BUEN 
On May 23 I flushed a brood of full-grown Woodcock. The female 
parent, instead of taking wing with them, remained on the spot and 
“agonized,”’ as it does frequently when discovered with downy young. 
‘Then, having secured my attention, it flew across the creek as the young 
had done. 
Probably it was a late nest of the Ruffed Grouse which I found on 
May 18. It contained only seven eggs, whereas, by the middle of the 
month, here, nests hold sets of fourteen or fifteen. I should have missed 
it altogether but, having stopped dead, the better to observe some war- 
blers in the tree tops, I so filled the brooding bird with fear that she 
“exploded” in flight. If I had passed along she would have sat close but she 
couldn’t stand my stopping just there with the nest only three feet behind 
me. I had never been able to get a satisfactory view of a nesting grouse. 
Usually I had found the nest by chance—happening close to the sitting 
bird and frightening her from it. Upon returning, no matter what pre- 
caution was taken, always the bird ran off before I could detect her on the 
nest. Hence I resolved that now I would take more care than ever and 
I remained in the vicinity only a few minutes, scarcely looking at the nest. 
I then picked out certain “bearings” and left. “Thus when I went back, ten 
days. later, I was rewarded by being able, at a safe distance, to see the 
bird through my glasses as she sat quietly, but I think not unaware, on 
her eggs. 
In a tall white pine on the lake shore, just in front of our cottage, a 
pair of Mourning Doves began building a nest on July 8. On July 12 a 
bird was seen on the nest and it was occupied until August 12 by one or 
the other of the parents. On that date one of the birds was seen to carry 
a quantity of dry grasses and weed stems to the nest and on the 27th this 
action was repeated. On September 8, not having seen the birds for several 
days and supposing the nest deserted, I prodded it gently from beneath 
with a long pole. A young bird flew off, gliding to a sapling just above 
the water. The distance of this perch from the nest, in a direct line, was 
perhaps 150 feet. However, two days later, the parents were feeding 
two young birds in the nest, where they remained until the 12th. They 
were last observed on the 13th, side by side in an oak where one of the 
parents fed them. The activities of nest-building and rearing the young 
(perhaps the partial rebuilding of the nest indicated an accident to the 
first eggs or to the nestlings) occupied 68 days. 
A less fortunate outcome of a protracted nesting occurred in the 
case of a Red-shouldered Hawk. Hereabouts the Red-shoulder completes 
her clutch and begins incubation in the second week of April but I did not 
find the nest until the 27th of that month. Without doubt the bird had 
been sitting for some time. So much was indicated by her distracted be- 
haviour upon the discovery of the nest. Nevertheless an egg, picked up 
a few days later on a mass of dry leaves below the nest tree, was found 
to be fresh. (How long it had lain there I don’t know. The weather was 
