284 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



12; and New York City, October 31, New Jersey — Demarest, De- 

 cember 6; and Leonia, December 17. Pennsylvania — Jeffersonville, 

 September 20; Wernersville, September 28; and Lima, October 20. 



Casual records. — According to Reid (1884) a specimen of this 

 species was taken in Bermuda and preserved in the Bartram collec- 

 tion. Other casual records are winter occurrences south of the nor- 

 mal range. Some of these are merely sight records and therefore 

 are not entirely satisfactory. One was reported by Wayne as seen 

 at Capers Island, S. C, on January 18, 1927; one was reported as 

 seen at Mandeville, La., in February or March 1897, and another 

 (thought to be this species) at West Baton Rouge, La., on April 

 6 and 7, 1903. Other writers on Louisiana birds refer to it as ""not 

 uncommon winter resident", "occasional winter visitor", and "rather 

 lare winter visitor", but without citing any records. There are several 

 published reports of sight records for Texas, among them being: 

 Fredericksburg, January 15 to 29, 1894; Somerset, November 24, 

 1924; and Electra, March 9, 1921; but the only specimen record ap- 

 pears to be one in the Sennett collection, taken on the Aransas 

 River on January 5, 1887. Rives (1890) saj^s it is a rare winter 

 visitor at Frenchcreek, W. Va., but gives no additional details. 



Egg dates. — Alaska and Arctic Canada : 32 records. May 18 to 

 July 13; 16 records. May 30 to June 20. 



Labrador: 19 records. May 2 to June 23; 10 records, June 4 to 

 10. 



BUTEO REGALIS (Gray) 

 FERRUGINOUS ROUGHLEG 



HABITS 



This latest name, regalis, \& a very appropriate one for this 

 splendid hawk, the largest, most powerful, and grandest of our 

 Buteos, a truly regal bird. One who knows it in life cannot help 

 being impressed with its close relationship to the golden eagle, which 

 is not much more than a glorified Buteo. Both species have 

 feathered tarsi, both build huge nests on cliffs or trees, and both lay 

 eggs that are very similar except in size; the food habits, flight, 

 behavior, and voice of the two are much alike. 



The ferruginous roughleg is a bird of the western plains, the wide 

 open spaces. It is equally at home on the grassy prairies, where it 

 nests in the timber belts along the streams, or in the barren, treeless 

 plains or badlands, where it is content to build its nest on some con- 

 venient cliff, butte, or cutbank. Its chief requirement seems to be 

 a good supply of small rodents on which it feeds. It was well named 

 the "California squirrel hawk", as it was known to prey largely on 

 the ubiquitous ground squirrels that have become such a pest in sev- 

 eral western States. The control of these pests by poison has resulted 



