SHORT-TAILED HAWK 255 



poga; this lake is the only recently known breeding locality and I 

 now believe that these hawks have been extirpated even there. 



Robert Ridgway (1881) first recorded this hawk as a bird of the 

 United States, based on a specimen taken by W. S. Crawford at 

 Oyster (Estero) Bay, Fla., on January 28, 1881. At that time some 

 doubt existed as to whether the little black hawk {Buteo fuliginosus 

 Sclater) and the short-tailed hawk {Buteo hrachyurus Vieillot) 

 were color phases of the same species or were distinct species. But 

 when W. E. D. Scott (1889) discovered a mated pair building a nest 

 and secured both birds it was definitely proved that both of these 

 strikingly different color phases belong to one and the same species. 

 B. fuUghiosus Sclater then became a synon3'm of B. hrachyurus 

 Vieillot, the earlier name. As the male of Scott's pair was black 

 and the female white breasted, he was misled in assuming that the 

 difference was sexual. It has since been proved that both phases 

 occur in both sexes. 



Nesting. — Scott's (1889) nest, found near Tarpon Springs on 

 March 16, 1889, was the first nest recorded in Florida; he says of 

 it : "The locality was on the edge of a 'hammock', and the nest, the 

 foundation of which was finished, was in a gum tree some forty feet 

 from the ground. Both birds were seen in the act of placing addi- 

 tional material on the structure." 



During the next month, that same year, C. J. Pennock (1890) found 

 a nest near St. Marks, "Wakulla County, the farthest north breeding 

 record ; he writes : 



April 3, I noticed a small black Hawk fly to a nest in a pine tree about 

 tbree miles back from the coast. On climbing to the nest I found the tree had 

 formerly been occupied by Herons, there being three old nests besides the one 

 occupied by the Hawk, which also I took for an old Heron's nest. It had evi- 

 dently been added to recently, and contained two or three fresh twigs of green 

 cypress on the bottom. At this time there were no eggs. I again visited the 

 nest April 8. The old bird was seen near, and this time she showed some con- 

 cern, flying around us above the tree tops as we approached, and several times 

 uttering a cry somewhat resembling the scream of the Red-shouldered Hawk, but 

 finer and not so pi'olonged. The nest had received further additions of cypress 

 twigs, but was still empty. 



The latest and most complete account of the nesting habits of the 

 short-tailed hawk is given by Herbert W. Brandt (1924) as follows: 



Lake Istokpoga is the second largest lake in Florida, lying northwest of Lake 

 Okeechobee in the central part of the state. It is roughly twelve to fifteen 

 miles across and is entirely surrounded by a large cypress growth. To the 

 south, reaching nearly to Lake Okeechobee, is a very dense impenetrable swamp, 

 said to be one of the worst in Florida, and one through which very few white 

 men have gone. It is in tliis swamp and in the big cypress bordering the lake 

 that we found the xShort-tailed Hawk. 



During the latter half of March, 1923, we spent considerable time watching 

 these birds, and on the 29th of that month, Mr. Howell found a nest in the 



