BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 189 



that the same bird occupies the nest continuously for twenty- 

 four hours, and after the young are developed enough to make 

 short flights, one parent at a time takes the special care of the 

 brood while the other pursues its chase. 



At these times the smaller birds contribute no little to the 

 daily supply. Snipe, sandpipers, plover, blackbirds, larks, 

 sandwiched with frogs, snakes, etc., to crayfish and beetles. 

 They must be driven by extreme hunger if ever they attack 

 domestic fowls. The observing farmers soon learn to dis- 

 tinguish them from the Red-tails by their consideration for 

 their poultry, as well as their stronger predilection for the 

 woods. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Wing coverts from the flexure to the body fine bright rufous; 

 breast and other lower parts of body paler orange-rufous, 

 many feathers with transverse bars and spots of white which 

 predominate on the abdomen and under tail coverts; entire 

 upper parts brown, on the head mixed with rufous, and with 

 white spots on the wing coverts, shorter quills and rump; quills 

 brownish-black with white spots on the outer webs, with bars 

 of a lighter shade of brown, and white on their inner webs; 

 tail brownish-black with about five transverse bands of white, 

 and tipped with white. 



Length (female), 21 to 28; wing, 14; tail, 8. 



Habitat, eastern North America. 



BUTEO SWAINSONI Bonaparte. (342.) 

 SWAINSON'S HAWK. 



Unlike either the Red-tailed or the Red-shouldered, this 

 hawk is essentially a prairie bird. It is never met with in 

 either of its migrations ; or if so too infrequently to have 

 attracted the attention of reliable observers who have noted 

 it in the southern counties of the States, notwithstanding they 

 extend their excursions occasionally into almost every open 

 district I have visited. 



I have never obtained it earlier than the first of May. but I 

 have not visited the sections where it is ordinarily easiest 

 found, so early as that, which leads me to suppose that it may 

 arrive some earlier than that date. I confess that it is at best 

 but a conjecture, but I am strongly inclined to believe that the 

 larger portion of Swainson's Hawks come in from the west or 

 southwest, as they are invariably found in the northwestern 

 parts of the State before an occasional individual is seen in the 

 latitude of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They choose trees in 



