The Red-Shouldered Hawk [Butco nucatns Uneatus) 



By W. Leon Dawson 



r.ength : 181/. inches. 



Range: Eastern North America to Alanitoba and Xova Scotia, west to 

 Texas and sonth to the gulf states. 



Food : ]\[ice, insects, moles and other small miimma.ls. reptiles, spiders. A 

 hawk of value to the farmer. 



The common names of the birds of prey are sadly confused in America. 

 We seldom use the noble word Falcon, although it strictly applies to many of 

 our species ; we call our Vultures, Buzzards ; and our proper Buzzards are merely 

 "Hawks" or "Hen Hawks." The Red-Shouldered Buzzard is, after the Sparrow 

 Hawk, the commonest bird of prey in the state. It is well distributed, since it 

 is content to occupy, if need be, a very small piece of woodland, but it does insist 

 upon having undivided possession of that little, at least so far as other birds 

 of the same species are concerned. 



From this little stretch of woodland, however humble, the Buzzard sallies 

 forth at intervals to view the landscape o'er, moving forward vigorously to a 

 well-accustomed haunt, or else circling aloft above the home woods to an immense 

 height, and then drifting away across the country in great, lazy, sun-burned cir- 

 cles, until the sight of game calls it down. Although its station is so lofty, 

 the prey it seeks is usually of the humblest — moles, mice, gophers, lizards and 

 insects. Poultry is rarely taken and then only under extenuating circumstances, 

 as when a chick has disobeyed its mother's injunctions and gone too far afield. 



Red-shouldered Hawks winter regularly from about the middle of the state 

 southward and casually to lake shore, but everywhere in diminished numbers. 

 The winter birds are probably from the extreme northern limits of the range 

 in Ontario, and I have fancied that it was on this account that they showed a 

 tendency to temporary albinism, or seasonal whitening of plumage. The return 

 journey is accomplished late in I'ebruary or early in Alarch, and by the middle 

 of the latter month most of the Hawks are mated. This has not been accom- 

 ])lished without considerable aerial evolutions and much affectionate screaming, 

 such as does credit to these "ignoble" birds of prey. 



Lor the nest an old domicile of the Crow is often ])ressed into service, 

 Init where the birds have little to fear in propria persona, they rear an unpreten- 

 tious structure of their own where spreading branches of beech or oak or elm 

 offer secure lodgment, close to the trunk or a little way removed. In case a 

 Crow's nest is used its undesirable concavitv is filled up with additional bark- 

 strips, cornhusks, or dead leaves, so that the eggs of the Hawk occupy only a 

 slight depression. h>esh eggs may be looked for about the middle of April. 

 Only one brood is regularly raised in a season, but in case the first eggs are de- 

 stroyed the birds will make one or two more attempts. Incubation lasts about four 



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