TEXAS RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 211 



but just how far does not seem to be known. The evidence seems to 

 show that texanus ranges at least as far north and west as Corpus 

 Christi and Austin. That some of the earlier writers referred to this 

 bird as elegans before texanus was named is not surprising, as the two 

 birds are much alike. 



Unlike the Florida bird, the Texas redshoulder is essentially a bird 

 of the heavily timbered river bottoms. It is decidedly the common- 

 est large hawk in Texas and in certain favorable localities is really 

 abundant. William Hahn, Jr. (1927), says that along the Nueces 

 River one "can often count anywhere from 10 to 25 in the air at one 

 time." This doubtless refers to the courtship season, which begins 

 in February and which Walter B. Savary tells me lasts for about a 

 month. At this season the birds may be seen circling in pairs over 

 the treetops, calling almost constantly. These river-bottom forests 

 are often extensive and very dense, with many trees of enormous 

 size — elms, pecans, hickories, cottonwoods, live oaks, pin oaks, and 

 hackberries. 



Nesting. — The nesting habits are very similar to those of the 

 northern red-shouldered hawk, except that they are often much 

 more concentrated in favorable localities. Mr. Hahn (1927) writes: 



I noticed that these birds will sometimes build their nests real close to each 

 other. In one instance I collected four sets in one clump of trees that was not 

 a half-mile square. It also had the fifth set in it when I had to leave. * • * 



Most of the nests found were in elms, live oaks, and hackberry trees, all were 

 in forks of the limb. Tlie nests measured anywhere from 14 inches to over 2 

 feet across and from 6 inches to 15 inches deep. The larger ones were those 

 used year after year, as very few were new ones. These hawks often dart at 

 you when you go to their nests and on two occasions I had them strike me in 

 the back and fly away uttering a very harsh scream. The nests are made 

 of twigs, Spanish moss, lined with green leaves or some green substance all 

 the time, and some moss, also feathers from the bird's body. 



George F. Simmons (1915) describes a nest, found in Harris 

 County, Tex., that was only "thirty feet up in a small pine tree" ; it 

 was "neatly lined with quite a quantity of fresh, green and fragrant 

 pine needles." The other nests which he "located were all in pines, 

 from 40 to 80 feet from the ground, generally in open pine woods 

 with little under brush." Elsewhere he says (1925) that the nest 

 is placed from "30 to 55, rarely 75, feet up in tallest bottomland 

 trees, in topmost crotch where several limbs branch out from main 

 trunk to form a heavy fork, generally in cedar elm, but often in tall 

 pecan, cottonwood or live oak trees." 



Eggs. — The Texas red-shouldered hawk lays two to four eggs, 

 generally three. These are indistinguishable from eggs of the north- 

 ern race. The measurements of 50 eggs average 53 by 42.9 milli- 

 meters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 57.2 by 44.8, 53 

 by 46, and 49.9 by 39.1 millimeters. 



