on them. The hen-hawk swoops down upon the
meadow-mouse from his position high in air, or from the top of a dead
tree; but the marsh hawk stalks him and comes suddenly upon him from
over the fence, or from behind a low bush or tuft of grass. He is nearly
as large as the hen-hawk, but has a much longer tail. When I was a boy I
used to call him the long-tailed hawk. The male is of a bluish
slate-color; the female reddish-brown, like the hen-hawk, with a white
rump.

Unlike the other hawks, they nest on the ground in low, thick marshy
places. For several seasons a pair have nested in a bushy marsh a few
miles back of me, near the house of a farmer friend of mine, who has a
keen eye for the wild life about him. Two years ago he found the nest,
but when I got over to see it the next week, it had been robbed,
probably by some boys in the neighborhood. The past season, in April or
May, by watching the mother bird, he found the nest again. It was in a
marshy place, several acres in extent, in the bottom of a valley, and
thickly grown with hardback, prickly ash, smilax, and other low thorny
bushes. My friend took me to the brink of a low hill, and pointed out to
me in the marsh below us, as nearly as he could, just where the nest was
located. Then we crossed the pasture, entered upon the marsh, and made
our way cautiously toward it. The wild, thorny growths, waist-high, had
to be carefully dealt with. As we neared the spot, I used my eyes the
best I could, but I did not see the hawk till she sprang into the air
not ten yards away from us. She went screaming upward, and was soon
sailing in a circle far above us. There, on a coarse matting of twigs
and weeds, lay five snow-white eggs, a little more than half as large as
hens' eggs. My companion said the male hawk would probably soon appear
and join the female, but he did not. She kept drifting away to the east,
and was soon gone from our sight.

We presently withdrew and secreted ourselves behind the stone wall, in
hopes of seeing the mother hawk return. She appeared in the distance,
but seemed to know she was being watched, and kept away.

About ten days later we made another visit to the nest. An adventurous
young Chicago lady also wanted to see a hawk's nest, and so accompanied
us. This time three of the eggs were hatched, and as the mother hawk
sprang up, either by accident or intentionally she threw two of the
young hawks some feet from the nest. She rose up and screamed an