270 MICHIGAN RIRD LIFE. 



Cadillac, April 22, 1882, and obtained the old female with one young and 

 one egg. None of these specimens can be located at present, and although 

 Dr. Gibbs examined the young bird when alive, June 26, 1882, he was not 

 able to identify it positively. The location is one of the highest in the 

 Lower Peninsula (about 1700 feet) and the surroundings precisely what 

 one would expect for the summer home of the Goshawk. 



Mr. S. E. White states (Birds of Mackinac Island, Auk, X, 1893, 223) 

 that in 1889 two pairs of Goshawks could be seen about the island every day, 

 but that he was unable to secure a specimen. In 1890 there was but one 

 pair and the last pair had disappeared in 1891. There can be little doubt 

 that these birds nested somewhere on the Island. 



At the Fontinalis Club, near Vanderbilt, Otsego County, the writer found 

 a pair of mounted Goshawks, July 28, 1909, which had been killed "a 

 year or two before" by Mr. I. F. Sellick, the caretaker of the club. Early 

 in the summer these hawks began carrying off his poultry, even taking 

 full grown fowls. Finally, in June or July, the boy who drove the cows 

 was attacked by one of the birds, which struck him on the head repeatedly 

 and so frightened him that he refused to pass the place again. Mr. Sellick 

 visited the place and was himself attacked. He located the nest "in the 

 top of a dead stub, perhaps 30 or 40 feet from the ground." No nest was 

 visible, but " the hen bird — at least the smallest one " was sitting in the top 

 of this stub and evidently had eggs or young there. He shot this bird, 

 and later secured the other when it returned to the nest. The nest itself 

 was not examined. Mr. Sellick is positive that birds of the same kind 

 nest in this vicinity every summer. 



The Goshawk has been found nesting in the mountains of Pennsylvania 

 and in southern New Hampshire, as well as in the Adirondack region of 

 northern New York. We know of no reason why it should not nest regularly 

 in elevated regions in Michigan where there is still plenty of timber. 



The eggs are two or three, nearly white, sometimes faintly marked with 

 brown, and average 2.31 by 1.74 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Adult: Bluish-gray or bluish-slate above, darkening to blackish or clear black on the 

 head, where tlie feathers are snow-white beneath the surface; usually a broad white stripe 

 above and beiiiiid the eye, bordered below by a stripe of slate-color or black; under parts 

 white finely barred with gray, blue-gray or blackish, regularly on the flanks and thighs, 

 irregularly elsewhere, and many of the feathers of throat and breast with narrow dark 

 shaft streaks. Tail bluish-gray like the back, sometimes without any dark bars above, 

 but usually showing four or five above, and these always conspicuous on the under side of 

 tail. Bill and claws black; cere, legs and feet yellow; iris deep red. Innnature: CJrayish 

 brown above, many feathers spotted, edged, or streaked with buff or white; lower ])arts 

 buffy white, heavily streaked and spotted (but not barred) with brownish-black; tail 

 grayish-brown with four or five dark cro.ssbands, and a narrow white terminal edging. 



Male: Length 22 inches; wing 12 to 13.25; tail 9.50 to 10.50; tarsus 2.70 to 3.05. 

 Female: Length 24.50; wing 13. .50 to 14.25; tail 11.50 to 12.75; tarsus same as in male. 



138. Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo borealis borealis (Gmel.). (337) 



Synonyms: Buzzard Hawk, Red-tailed iiuzzanl, Hen Hawk, Big Hen Hawk, Chicken 

 Hawk, White-breasted Chicken Hawk, Eastern Redtail. — Falco borealis, Gmel., 1788, 

 Wils., 1808, Nutt., 1840. — Buteo borealis, Vieill., 1819, and American authors generally. 



Plate XIX and Figure 72. 



When adult readily recognized by the large size and the general bright 

 chestnut color of the tail with a narrow white tip and sometimes more or 



