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100 THE CONDOR Vol. XV across the meadow, for some time. As he rises upward he calls four or five short squeaky-sounding notes, "eh--eh---eh--eh---eh", but when he flaps downward again, he is silent. The female usually sits silently watching the performance, but occasionally calls to him with a loud scream. If he flies too far away, she sometimes leaves her perch and sails silently after him to a point where she can get a nearer view of his performance. Nesting in this region evidently begins in the latter part of May. I first ob- served the pair, whose nest is the subject. of this study, in the vicinity of where they nested on May 22. The nest was not found until May 27, when it contained but a single egg, evidently just laid. The nest waa merely a hollow in the ground lined with a few grasses, and located under a thick clump of cinquefoil bushes. Another nest of this species was found May 26 with a single egg, so that this is probably about the average time'when nesting .-.C-" THE MARSH HAWK; PHOT? TAK? JUNE 6, 1912, NEAR CHOUTEAU, ?ONTANA of this species begins in this re- gion. This other nest was built of small sticks, lined with grass- es, and placed in the midst of a cattail marsh. Eggs are not laid daily, but evidently at irregular intervals averaging about once in two days. The first nest, found May 27 , had still but one egg on the evening of May 28. I was away from the vicinity from that date until June 6, but on my return found five eggs in the nest, and on a second visit that evening, six eggs. The sixth egg completed the set. During the period from June 6 to 3o the female incubated al- most constantly; in fact I never went to the nest when she was not there. The male bird did not incubate at ali, to my knowl- edge, as the male of this species is sometimes said to do. He was usually in the vicinity of the nest, ?ut sometimes away hunt- ing. Both birds were always much disturbed at my presence, but the male was much the more aggressive. This was also true of the birds at the second nest mentioned above. The male usually saw me when I was a considerable distance from the nest, and flew toward me, circling about my head, and calling "eh---eh-- eh--eh--eh", at short intervals. As I got nearer the nest h? grew bolder, and often swooped at my head. He never actually struck me ,_'n these swoops, but often came within two or three feet, and I believe he might have struck me with his feet, had I not frequently waved my hat or camera tripod at him, which had the effect of scrmewhat decreasing the ardor of his attacks. In his attacks he usually circled till fairly close to me, then with a sudden, savage twist in his flight, lowered his feet as though to strike me ?vith them, and swooped directly at my head. The female did not rise from the nest until I was ten or fifteen feet away,