240 BIRDS OF NEW ENGLAND AND EASTERN NEW YORK 



beating back and forth just above the tops of the grass or 

 bushes, and dropping upon its victim, after the manner of 

 the Marsh Hawk" (Fisher). 



The luhitisJi base of the tail and its length help to 

 identify this hawk in the light-colored phase ; care, how- 

 ever, must be taken not to mistake the much commoner 

 Marsh Hawk, which has pure white upper tail-coverts, for 

 a Rough-leg. The former I have never seen light on a tree ; 

 the latter often watches for its prey from a perch ; the 

 flight of the former is light, the latter's heavy. 



Broad-winged Hawk. Buteo 'platyi^terus 

 Z 14.00. 9 17.00 



Ad. — Upper parts dark brown; tail dark, crossed by two to 

 four broad bands of light gray or whitish, which show from 

 below ; under sides of quill-feathers white, tipped with black ; 

 under parts brownish, spotted with white. Im. — Upper parts 

 dark brown ; tail duller, with fainter bars ; cheeks with rather 

 distinct dusky streaks or "mustaches;" under parts white or 

 bufpy, heavily streaked with black. 



Nest^ in trees, from twenty-five to fifty feet up. Eggs, bufpy- 

 whitish, spotted with brown. 



The Broad-winged Hawk is a summer resident of ]S"ew 

 York and New England. In some parts of northern New 

 England it is the commonest hawk, but it is rare or absent 

 in many localities. It arrives in April, and leaves in Sep- 

 tember. It is a bird of wooded hills, and disappears if the 

 country is cleared. 



If a student has become familiar with the commoner 

 hawks, and can recognize a Buteo by the cut of the wings 

 and tail, he may hope under favorable conditions to identify 

 a Broad-winged Hawk. It is decidedly smaller than a 

 Ked-shouldered Hawk, and has in the breeding season a 

 cry that resembles the note of the Wood Pewee. It is the 

 most unsuspicious of our hawks, especially about the nest. 

 In the adult the dark bars across the tail show distinctly 



