108 BIRDS OF PREY. 



and stakes in the rice-fields, remaining thus for half an 

 hour at a time, and then darting after their prey as it 

 comes in sight. I saw one descend upon a Plover, as 

 I thought, and Wilson remarks their living on these 

 birds, Larks, and Sandpipers. The same pair that I 

 watched also hung on the rear of a flock of Cow-buntings 

 which were feeding and scratching around them. It is 

 possible that they sometimes attack squirrels, as I have 

 been informed ; and Wilson charges them with preying 

 also upon Ducks. 



I never observed them to soar, at least in winter, their 

 time being passed very much in indolence, and in watch- 

 ing their ignoble game. Their flight is almost as easy 

 and noiseless as that of the owl. In the early part of 

 the month of March they were breeding in West Flor- 

 ida, and seemed to choose the densest thickets, and not 

 to build at any great height from the ground. On ap- 

 proaching these places, the kee-o6 became very loud and 

 angry. 



All the individuals I have seen in the southern states, some scores, 

 ao-reed so nearly with Wilson's and Pennant's Red-shouldered 

 Hawk, that I can scarcely avoid the conclusion, that this is the state 

 of the adult plumage ; if, indeed, the Winter Hawk is at all identic 

 with ours, the very different number of bars in the tail of the two 

 birds is sufficiently remarkable. The male Red-shouldered spe- 

 cies, according to Wilson, is 19 inches in length ; that of Pennant 

 was 22 inches, having seven bands, however, on the tail ; this must 

 have been a female, which differs from the other sex chiefly in 

 the colors, which are less dark and pure. Bill blackish. Cere and legs 

 yellow. The head and back are brownish and rustj^. The greater 

 wing-covers and secondaries pale olive-brown, thickly spotted with 

 white and yellowish white. Primaries nearly black, barred with 

 white. Tail black, rounded, extending about 1^ inches beyond the 

 wings, crossed by 5 bands of white, and broadly tipped with the 

 same. Beneath bright rusty, with indistinct darker transverse bands 

 (the disposition of which, being contrary to that of the spots of the 

 Winter Hawk, are in the order usually occurring in old birds rather 



