208 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



BUTEO LINEATUS EXTIMUS Bang* 



INSULAR RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 



HABITS 



The above common name of this small race of the red-shouldered 

 hawk is based on the erroneous impression that it is confined to the 

 Florida Keys, and that is the only range given for it in the latest 

 A. O. U. check-list (1931). During three seasons I have traveled 

 extensively over many of the keys. Although I have seen these 

 hawks on some of the larger keys, I have never seen a hawk's nest 

 on any of the keys. The type specimen was collected on Key Bis- 

 cayne, opposite Miami in Dade County, which is practically a part 

 of the mainland and a long way from the Florida Keys proper. As 

 a matter of fact, it is a widely distributed and very common liawk 

 all through the southern third of Florida and for an undetermined 

 distance farther north. Birds that I have collected in the southern 

 counties, as far north as Lake Okeechobee, are all typical of this 

 form. How much farther north it ranges, or where it intergrades 

 with aUeni, is yet to be learned ; a gradual diminution in size makes 

 it difficult to draw the line. 



Outran! Bangs (1920), in describing this form, gave as its char- 

 acters : "Similar to Buteo Uneatus alleni, and not much different in 

 color though perhaps averaging in general a little darker and richer, 

 but much smaller." The striking color characters of both extimus 

 and alleni are the extreme grayness on the head and upper parts 

 generally and the paleness of the under parts; these are quite notice- 

 able in the field. The "darker and richer" colors referred to by jSIr. 

 Bangs are not noticeable in my specimens. 



The center of abundance of extijnus seems to be in Monroe County 

 and around the southern edge of the Everglades, where it is exceed- 

 ingly abundant for a hawk. Everglades red-shouldered hawk would 

 have been an appropriate name, for it is in no sense insular. As one 

 drives along the Tamiami Trail these little hawks are much in evi- 

 dence and very tame, perched on the telegraph poles and allowing a 

 close approach; they seem to realize that no shooting is allowed 

 within a mile of this road. They are oftenest seen in and about the 

 small cypress swamps, where they probably find abundant food. 

 They are less often to be found in the flat pine woods and about the 

 hardwood hammocks on dry ground. 



Nesting. — My first nest of this hawk was shown to me on April 27, 

 1903, near Flamingo, at the southern tip of Florida. It was about 

 30 feet from the ground in a black mangrove in a grove of these 

 trees near the shore; it was the usual nest of sticks lined with man- 

 grove leaves. A single young bird, fully grown, was sitting up in 

 the nest, but it flew away as I started to climb. 



