FALCONID/E. BUTEO INSIGNATUS. 33 



courage than his mate in resistance to the intruders, was shot. The female was 

 wounded, but escaped. 



The egg of the B. calurus measures 2 T 4 g inches in length by 1^- in breadth. Its 

 capacity is considerably less than that of the B. montanus ; its shape is a much rnSre 

 oblong oval ; one end is evidently more pointed than the other. Its ground color is 

 a dirty cream-white. It is covered, chiefly at the larger end, with blotches and 

 smaller markings of a dark shade of a brown almost exactly corresponding with that 

 known as Vandyke-brown, with smaller markings and spottings of a lighter shade 

 of the same. The latter arc distributed at intervals over its entire surface. 



BUTEO INSIGNATUS. 



Buteo insignalus, CASSIN, Syn. N. A. Birds (Illust. Birds of Cal.), 1854, p. 102. 



" Illust. Birds of Cal. 1854, p. 198. 

 VULG. The Canada Buzzard. The Brown Buzzard. 



IN the collection of eggs obtained in California by Mr. Emanuel Samuels were two 

 eggs of a Hawk which he had no doubt belonged to a bird of this species. The par- 

 ent was shot on the nest, but escaped into a deep ravine below, and was not obtained. 

 As the egg is different from that of any other Hawk that I am aware of, it has been 

 included among the illustrations, and assigned to this bird, on the strength of Mr. 

 Samuels's impressions. It should be added, however, that his view of the bird was 

 necessarily imperfect, and he may have been mistaken in regard to it. It is pos- 

 sibly the egg of Buteo bairdii, perhaps a variety of B. sivainsoni, or it may belong 

 to the B. elegans, all of which bear sufficient resemblance to the B. insignatus to be 

 confounded with it, without an opportunity of closer inspection than he possessed. 

 The nest was on a large white-oak, over a deep ravine, on St. Antonio Creek, 

 near Petaluma. It was very large, was constructed of coarse sticks, and was at least 

 sixty feet from the ground. 



In regard to the habits and the geographical distribution of this Hawk, but little 

 is known to naturalists. It was first described from a specimen belonging to the 

 Natural History Society of Montreal, and obtained in that vicinity. Specimens have 

 since been met with in California ; but to what extent it is distributed through 

 the intervening country remains to be ascertained. It is not improbable that it is a 

 more common species on the Pacific coast, and that it is of rare and accidental 

 occurrence in the eastern part of the continent. Dr. Heermann has ascertained that 

 this Hawk rears its young in California, where he met with both adult and young 

 specimens of this species. 



The egg represented in the plate (Plate III, fig. 27), and which is supposed to be 

 that of this Hawk, measures 2 T 4 g inches in length by 1 T 4 in breadth. Its shape is 

 an oblong oval, and neither end is perceptibly larger than the other. The ground 

 5 



