BROAD-WINGED HAWK 237 



white pine, mixed with hardwoods, and more rarely in the stunted 

 forests of pitch pines and oaks on Cape Cod. Generally they are 

 quite remote from human habitations in quiet woods. 



J. W. Preston (1888) writes : "In hidden retreats, where the tangled 

 wilderness of lakes and forests guards in lonely silence the streams 

 which feed the Ked Kiver of the North in Minnesota, I found the 

 Broad- winged Hawk {Buteo pennsylvanicus) , breeding abundantly. 

 At home with the Barred Owl, and unmolested by stealthy tread of 

 wild cat or lynx, he is in this region indeed a 'bird of the wilderness'." 



Frank L. Burns (1911) in his excellent monograph, which far 

 overshadows this brief life history, says : 



lu Pennsylvania it haunts tlie wild rocky wooded ravines above the small 

 streams and close to small ponds and svv'amps. While it is not unknown to the 

 large grove, it loves the continuous woods over which it can pass undisturbed 

 and unseen from one feeding ground to another ; shunning the cultivated area 

 altogether or traversing it only to visit some nearby swamp or pond. 



The ideal station, and I refer to a definite existing locality in S. B. Pa., 

 would seem to be a tract consisting of upland, hillside and swamp, well cov- 

 ered with mixed hardwood timber, with here and there an unoccupied clearing, 

 an unfrequented public highway, cart road or path, with room enough for the 

 silent deadly swoop after the unfortunate mouse or red squirrel ; also a small 

 stream or pond, in the shallow reaches of which it can snatch the crayfish, and 

 surprise the frog or trout-eating water snake on the borders of the pools. The 

 verdant foliage supplies it v^•ith numberless insects and fat larvae. As it sits 

 upon one of its favorite perches, well hidden by a leafy screen, s.hould a chance 

 human intrude, it cranes its neck and utters its plaintive whistle, which the 

 uninitiated attributes to the cry of one of the numerous small woodland birds 

 or the creaking of two opposing branches in the wind. 



William Brewster (1925) says of its haunts in Maine: 



Within the forest the Broad-winged Hawk leads, for the most part, an 

 untroubled and sedentary life contenting itself with such animal food as may 

 be had with the least possible exertion and confining its hunting operations to 

 areas of no very great extent. Although not averse to frequenting flat lands 

 where spruces, balsams, and other evergreens flourish to the general exclusion 

 of deciduous trees, it is most likely to be met with on the crests or flanks of 

 ridges heavily timbered with intermingling hemlocks, beeches, yellow birches, 

 and rock maples of the largest size, or in deep glens watered by sluggish brooks 

 flowing beneath dense canopies of overarching foliage. 



Spring. — ^Mr, Burns (1911) gives the following general outline of 

 the spring migration: 



My data tends to the conclusion that the vast bulk of migrating Broad-wings 

 ascend the Mississippi valley, distributing its quota near the mouth of every 

 river valley. Natives of Minnesota and Manitoba region have a compara- 

 tively simple journey after entering the United States, but the vast horde pour- 

 ing into the Ohio valley enroute for Ontario, Quebec and possibly northeastern 

 United States and southeastern Canada, have a more intricate and fatiguing 

 journey. As few if any migrants appear from the West Indies, the Gulf States 

 must receive their supply from the Mississippi valley also; and the Atlantic 



