BROAD-WINGED HAWK 245 



insect-eaters, the latter very largely so. In one respect its enormous value ranks 

 above all other birds, and that is the destruction of immense numbers of injuri- 

 ous larvae of large moths, which most birds are either unable or disinclined to 

 to cope with. 



Lewis O. Shelley sent me the following note : 



A broad-winged hawk a few years ago was unusually bothersome to a pair of 

 bluebirds that nested on a pole. Many times a day it swooped from some 

 nearby tree as a bird entered the box. It did one day succeed in getting the 

 female, under interesting conditions. I had seen the hawk alight in a tree and 

 the female bluebird enter its box without molestation. Then the hawk flew at 

 the pole and struck it with the wings in a forward-check attack that set the 

 pole a-quiver. Usually this would be unavailing with a tight-sitting bird such 

 as the bluebird, but the young were nearly ready to leave and this might 

 explain it. Anyhow, the female stayed in the box for some moments, and in 

 the meantime the hawk had taken a perch on the box, so that when the bird's 

 head appeared in the entrance, with a half flop sidewise the hawk grasped the 

 bluebird's head and pulled her from the entrance. I later shot the hawk. 



William Brewster (1925) writes: 



The visits of the Broad-winged Hawk to the shores of the Lake are made 

 oftenest late in May or early June when toads (Bufo americanus) are spawning 

 plentifully. It seems to prefer these unattractive batrachians to any other 

 prey, perhaps because ihey are so easily secured; for at all times when not 

 diverting itself by aerial flights the Broad-wing is one of the most sluggish and 

 indolent of birds, rarely undertaking any vigorous exertion which can well be 

 avoided. Of this its predilection for toad-hunting and manner of pursuing it 

 afford evidence no less amusing than convincing. After alighting on a low 

 branch or stub overlooking some shallow reach of calm water besprinkled with 

 innumerable floating toads absorbed in the cares and pleasures of procreation, 

 and rending the still air with the ceaseless din of their tremulous voices, the 

 Hawk will often gaze do^vn at them long and listlessly, as if undecided which 

 particular one to select from among so many, or dreamily gloat over the wealth 

 of opportunities for such selection. It may finally glide swiftly, yet without 

 effort, along a slight downward incline to a toad forty or fifty yards away, or 

 may drop more abruptly and awkwardly on one closer at hand, flapping its 

 wings at the last moment to check the impetus of its descent. In either case it 

 is almost certain to capture the unheeding quarry which may be borne olf to a 

 distant nest or quickly torn asunder and devoured on some near by perch. If 

 this be much frequented for such a purpose, the ground beneath it is likely to 

 become strewn with glutinous strings of toad spawn which the Hawk apparently 

 never eats. 



A man who owns a trout farm once brought me a broad-winged 

 hawk that he said had been catching his trout, but its crop contained 

 a frog, recently swallowed, and in its stomach was a partially di- 

 gested field mouse. This hawk does occasionally catch small fishes; 

 Mr. Forbush (1927) refers to one that had 17 minnows in its gullet. 

 I can find very little evidence that it ever attacks poultry ; most ob- 

 servers say that it never does. Ellison A. Smyth, Jr. (1912), says: 

 "An incubating female was brought to me on May 18 by a farmer, 

 who said that it had a nest in a large oak tree near his home, and 



