THE RED-TAILED HAWK. 99 



and tail crossed with wary bars of dusky, the latter tipped 

 with whitish. Concealed patch on back of head, white; 

 sides white, barred with reddish and dark-brown; white 

 beneath, tinged below the throat with reddish-yellow, the 

 breast barred with reddish-brown; under wing coverts 

 tipped with black. There is also a darker form. The 

 female^ some 20.10 long and 48.75 in extent, is similarly 

 marked, but much darker. This species sometimes builds 

 its nest in shrubbery. 



The Broad-winged Hawk i^Biiteo pemisylvanicus) is a com- 

 mon eastern species. The male^ some 15.25 long and 35.00 

 in extent, is brown above, the feathers edged with reddish; 

 head and neck streaked with white; tail with a broad, red- 

 dish-gray band a little more than an inch from the tip, a 

 narrow band of the same nearer the base, and tipped with 

 same; under parts white, or buffy- white, broadly cross- 

 barred and variously marked with light-brown. Female^ an 

 inch or so longer, and similarly marked. This fine little 

 Hawk is generally distributed throughout the Eastern 

 States in summer, and winters to the south. Its food is 

 mostly the smaller birds and quadrupeds, which it captures 

 for the most part among the bushes or on the ground. Like 

 the rest of the Buteos^ it is quite given to sailing in flight, 

 but not in such grand, sweeping curves as those of its larger 

 congeners. It is, perhaps, one of the most unwary of all 

 our Hawks, and, with a little caution, may be approached 

 quite closely. It nests in trees, constructing quite a bulky 

 nest of sticks and twigs externally, and lined with leaves 

 and shreds of bark. Generally an evergreen tree is pre- 

 ferred. The eggs, three or four, some 2.10 x 1-65 elliptical 

 or roundish, are of a dirty white color, blurred or blotched 

 with reddish-brown. Sometimes they are almost white. 



