C. H. Merriatn — Birds of Connecticut. 87 



sequel : ' He came and alighted on my fence within a few feet of me 

 when I was feeding my fowls. They Hew in every direction. Care- 

 fully stepping up I caught the pretty creature and thought I would 

 save him for the doctor. Putting him into a box, I gave him some 

 corn,' but he did not seem huixjry, and icould not eat a kernel.''''''* 

 Again, under the name of " Winter Hawk (Buteo hi/emalis),'''' the 

 doctor continues : " Sitting patiently upon a tree near some spring 

 or marshy ground, it will watch by the hour for a frog to make its 

 appearance, when it is immediately seized and drowned. There is a 

 side-hill, some few miles from my office, from which springs con- 

 stantly run in the coldest weather, forming quite a wet, marshy place, 

 offering great inducements to the Winter Hawk. Here you may see 

 one or more of these birds every winter, perched upon a tree near by 

 watching for its favorite food. I received two specimens shot from 

 that tree in one day."f 



165. Buteo PennsylvaniCUS (AVilson) Bonaparte. Broad-winged Ilawk. 



A rather rare resident, seldom seen in winter. It breeds sparingly 

 about New Haven, and Mr. W. W. Coe has taken quite a number of 

 their nests, together with several of the finest specimens of the bird 

 that I have ever seen, in the vicinity of Portland, Conn. He informs 

 me that they generally lay later than the Red-shouldered Hawks, and. 

 like them, often build a new nest every year. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam (in 1856) gave it as a rare winter visitant so 

 far north as Essex Co., Mass.J 



166. Archibuteo lagopus, var. Sancti-Johannis (Gmeiin) Ridgway. 



Rough-legged Hawk ; Black Hawk. 



A winter visitor ; not common. I saw one near New Haven, Nov. 

 20tli, 1875. Mr. Geo. Bird Grinnell tells me that he has seen it, in 

 spring, near North Haven, Conn. It is sometimes quite abundant on 

 the low meadows bordering the Connecticut River, where, in the 

 vicinity of East Windsor Hill, Conn., Dr. William Wood has 

 secured a large number of specimens. The splendid series thus 

 obtained, enabled him, many years ago, to prove the identity of the 

 two foi-ms, lagopus and Sancti-Johannis, then considered, by our 



* Hartford Times, chap, xii, June 8th, 1861. 

 f Hartford Times, chap, xiii, June 15th, 1861. 

 X Proceed. Essex Inst., vol. i, p. 203. 1856. 



