Not infrequently this Hawk will sit for hours on the dead top of a tall tree at the edge of a forest, and with its body erect and motionless will often seem almost a part of the tree. Its food is usually procured on the ground, and it is near the ground or among the denser growths of the forest, where it may find insect larvæ, that it is more often seen. The Broad-winged Hawk may truthfully be called a friend of the agriculturist, for it seldom feeds on bird life of any kind, but rather upon mice and other rodents, toads, frogs and insects. Dr. Fisher, in his valuable work, “The Hawks and Owls of the United States,” says: “The only act of the Broad-winged Hawk which seems injurious to agriculture is the killing of toads and small snakes, the former of which are exclusively insect eaters, the latter very largely so. In one respect its enormous value ranks above all other birds, and that is in the destruction of immense numbers of injurious larvæ of large moths, which most birds are either unable or disinclined to cope with.” In the examination of stomachs of sixty-five of these Hawks Dr. Fisher obtained the following results: Two contained small birds; fifteen contained mice and thirteen other mammals; in eleven the remains of reptiles, and in thirteen batrachians were found; thirty contained the remains of insects, two earthworms, four crawfish and seven were empty. The results were surely in favor of the bird. Well may the farmer listen to the words of Alexander Wilson: “Kill not thy friend, who thy whole harvest shields, And sweeps ten thousand vermin from thy fields.” The poultry yard is safe from the depredations of these quiet birds, which, though sluggish and heavy in flight, can move with great rapidity and soar high in the air if they so desire. Even the small birds in the woods seem to consider them to be harmless, for they give them but little attention. When this bird does attack small birds it is either, as a rule, when they are very young or injured in some manner. Its nest is usually made of sticks and twigs and lined with soft fibrous strips of bark, leaves and feathers that fall from the breasts of the setting birds. The nests are placed in either evergreen or deciduous trees, and seldom more than thirty or forty feet from the ground. They are frequently much lower and occasionally in the tops of very tall trees. They have been known to use the deserted nests of other birds, especially that of the crow, which is nearly as large as their own structure. Dr. Fisher says that one of its notes quite closely resembles that of the wood pewee. Another writer says that “their call note is a peevish ‘chee-e-e-e,’ prolonged at pleasure and uttered in a high key. However, to fully appreciate their shrill note of complaint it must be heard.” THE BIRD’S COMPLAINT.