A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
Dr. Hoy, in a communication to the Boston Natural History Society,
mentions finding four nests of this Hawk in a single season, and his
careful observations of the habits of the parent birds enabled him to
ascertain that in each instance the birds began to sit constantly upon
their nest as soon as a single egg had been deposited, and that, as a
consequence, the eggs having been deposited at varying intervals, each
one was found in a different stage of incubation from the other. In not
a single instance did he visit a nest without finding the parent bird
occupying it.
These nests were all composed of sticks, rudely lined with strips of
bark and a few bunches of _Usnea barbata_. The nests were quite shallow
and small for a Hawk. Most of the eggs were sparingly sprinkled with
umber-brown. One set of these eggs was blotched with bluish-green,
which soon faded out. While the nests were being molested, the parent
Hawk would fly from tree to tree, uttering, in rapid succession,
_quick-quick-quick-quick_.
Dr. Hoy states that the male of this species, during the nesting-season,
may frequently be seen flying high in the air, sporting, vaulting, and
turning somersaults on the wing, which habit has given to it the name
of Tumbler-Hawk. No Hawk is harder to shoot, and none commits greater
havoc among barn-yard fowls than this species. He has seen one strike a
large hen while she was flying wildly for safety, and kill her on the
spot, though it was obliged to abandon the game, as it proved too heavy
to carry off.
I have specimens of its eggs from South Carolina, obtained by the
young sons of Rev. M. A. Curtis, of Society Hill. Mr. Curtis, Sen.,
furnished me with the following description of its nest: “The nest of
the Cooper’s Hawk was built in the triple fork of a tall black gum
(_Nyssa multiflora_), near the top of the tree, which stood in a swamp.
It was formed of a layer of small sticks, ⅓ to ½ inch in diameter. Its
external diameter varied from 1½ to 2 feet. This layer was ⅞ of an inch
in thickness, with only a slight depression in the centre, hardly enough
to keep the eggs from rolling out. A few thin pieces of pine bark formed
the bed for the eggs.”
Another nest, obtained in Randolph, Vt., by Charles S. Paine, Esq.,
is thus described by him: “The nest was built of hemlock twigs, and
lined with small, thin pieces of hemlock bark, such as hang loosely on
the tree. The Hawk, when the nest was approached, did not whistle, as
some others of that family do, but uttered a cry of _ge! ge! ge! ge!_
This was repeated several times, with great rapidity, by both male and
female.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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