RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 273 



Carolina," he says, " I observed one of these birds 

 leave its withered perch, and soaring aloft over 

 the wild landscape, in a mood of contemplation, 

 begin to ascend towards the thin skirting of ele- 

 vated clouds above him. At length he passed this 

 sublime boundary, and was now perceived and 

 soon followed by his ambitious mate, and in a 

 little time, by circular ascending gyrations, they 

 both disappeared in the clear azure of the hea- 

 vens ; and though I waited for their reappearance 

 half an hour, they still continued to be wholly 

 invisible." 



Red-shouldered Hawk: Buteo Uneatus. 



Adults, upper parts dark brown ; shoulders reddish brown ; tail 

 black, with four to five white cross-bars ; under parts barred 

 with reddish brown and white. Young, tail without distinct 

 cross-bars ; under parts whitish, streaked with dark brown. 

 Length, male, about IS^- inches ; female, about 20^ inches. 



Geographic Distribution. — Eastern North America, west to 

 the Plains, north to Nova Scotia and Manitoba. 



This valuable bird has also been damned by the 

 name of Hen Hawk and Chicken Hawk, though 

 not a single fowl has been found in the many 

 stomachs examined by Doctor Fisher. The doc- 

 tor's testimony is enforced by the record of a case 

 in which a pair of the Red-shoulders reared their 

 young for two years in a small, swampy piece of 

 woods about fifty rods from a poultry farm con- 

 taining 800 young chickens and 400 ducks, and in 

 all the two years were never seen attempting to 



