THE RED-TAILKD AMERICAN BUZZARD. 113 



ward it is scattered over that continent to the shores of the Mediterranean. It is com- 

 mon in several parts of the United States. Audubon saw it as far south as the eastern 

 portion of North CaroHna. He says it goes northward from thence to breed in March, 

 and that it is more noctiuTial in its habits than any other hawk in the same locaUty. 



Dr. Richardson states that this species " advances east of the Rocky Moimtains as 

 high as the 68th parallel. It arrives in the fur countries m April or May, and having 

 reared its young, retires southward eai'ly in October. It winters on the banks of the 

 Delaware and Schuylkill, returning to the north again in the sprmg. It is by no means 

 an imcommon bu-d in the districts through which the expedition under Sir John Franklin 

 travelled ; but being very shy, only one specimen was procured. A pair were seen at 

 their nest, built of sticks, on a lofty tree, standing on a low moist alluvial point of land. 

 They sailed round the spot m a wide cu-cle, occasionally settling on the top of a tree, 

 but were too -waiy to allow us to come withiu gun-shot. In the softness and fulness of 

 its plumage, its feathered legs, and habits, this bird bears some resemblance to the owls. 

 It flies slowly, sits for a long time on the bough of a tree, watcliing for mice, fi'ogs, &c., 

 and is often seen skimming over swampy pieces of ground, and hunting for its prey by 

 the subdued daylight which illuminates even the midnight hours in the high parallels of 

 latitude. Wilson observes, that in Pennsylvania it is in the habit of coursing over the 

 meadows long after the sim has set. It is fitted for this nocturnal chase by the softness 

 of its plumage, which contributes to render its flight noiseless, like that of an owl." 



THE RED-TAILED AMERICAN BUZZARD. 



Tliis species is peculiar to America, and is most frequently seen in the lower parts of 

 Pennsylvania, during the severity of winter. Among the extensive meadows that border 

 the SchuylMll and Delaware, below Philadelphia, where flocks of larks (Alauda magna) 

 and where mice and moles are in great abimdance, many individuals of this species spend 

 the greater part of the winter. Others prowl aroimd the plantations, looking out for 

 vagrant chickens ; theu* method of seizing wliich is by sweeping swiftly over the spot, 

 and grappling them with theii- talons, they bear them away to the woods. One of these 

 birds was surprised in the act of feeding on a hen he had just killed, and which he was 

 compelled to abandon. The remains of the chicken were immediately baited to a steel- 

 trap, and early the next morning the imfortunate buzzard was found a prisoner, seciu-ely 

 fastened by the leg. The same hen, which the day before he had massacred, was, the 

 very next, made the means of decoying liim to his destruction ; — in the eye of the farmer, 

 a system of fair and just retribution. 



This species inhabits the whole United States. "I beUeve," says WUson, "it is not 

 migrating, as I found it, in the month of May, as far south as Fort Adams, in the 



* Buteo Borealis. — Swains. 



