180 Bird - Lore
If their title could be searched, even the early red»skinned islanders would doubtless be found to have been trespassers.
But if the Fish-hawks cannot prevent man’s presence, they can and do deny to any other member of the Hawk family the right to share their sum- mer home: and while the Fish-hawks are there one may look in vain for Hawks of other species on Gardiner's Island.
At least two hundred pairs of these fine birds nest on the island; and the variation in the character of their nesting sites effectively illustrates how, under certain conditions, a bird may depart from habit of its kind
'ru‘o YOUNG FISH-HAWKS ix A GROUND NEST WHICH CONTAINED COMPARATIVELY LITTLE NESTYNG MATERIAL
Pholcxraphed July 7. mm
without paying the penalty which so often befalls animals with but par- tially developed instincts.
It is the normal habit of the Fish-hawk to nest in trees. but on Gardiner’s Island one finds these birds building their homes not only in trees but actually on the ground, It was interesting to observe, however, that, with one exception, these ground-nests contained fully as much building material as though a tree site had been selected. I say selected. without implying;' that the bird actually made a choice of position‘ Rather, it seems to me, these ground—dwelling birds, while inheriting the nest- building instincts of their species. are not instinctively impelled to adopt a site which has proven to be the most desirable for Fish-hawks. On the mainland such variability from the standard would have placed the bird, its eggs or its young within the reach of predaceous mammals, and it
