EAGLES, HAWKS, AND KITES 



77 



streaked with dusky and brown; lores, whitish; a 

 diffused but strongly marked mustache from gape to 

 breast but throat white ; breast, pale yellowish-brown 

 shading into whitish under coverts, thickly traversed 

 on breast with broad arrowhead bars of reddish-l)rown, 

 these bars wider on sides and Hanks, narrower on thigh 

 leathers, and each with a central dark shaft line; 

 greater coverts edged with rufous or raw umber; bill, 

 dark horn color ; cere and feet, yellow ; claws, black ; 

 iris, deep brown. Young: Above, blackish-brown vari- 

 egated with raw umber, chestnut, or dull whitish edg- 

 ings to all feathers ; streaks above and behind eye and 

 sides of head, pale yellowish-brown streaked with 

 brownish ; throat, white as in adult ; under parts, yellow- 

 ish-white vvitli a tinge of tawny, boldly marked on sides 

 and flanks with longitudinal drop- and arrowhead- 

 shaped dark brown spots, center line of breast and 



abdomen with a few narrow streaks or plain ; tail, dark 

 brown crossed with 6 or 8 lighter bars on both webs 

 of middle leathers, on outer webs of the others; all 

 tail-feathers tipped with white. 



Nest and Eggs. — Nest: Usually placed in the 

 crotches of trees from 10 to 8o feet above ground; 

 roughly and coarsely constructed of sticks and bits 

 of bark and lined with small roots, bark strips, moss, 

 or feathers and sometimes decorated with green sprigs. 

 Kggs : 2 to 5, usually 2 or 3. very pale greenish or 

 grayish-white heavily marked with brown spots. 



Distribution. — Eastern North .'Xmerica ; breeds from 

 central ."Mljcrta. southeastern Saskatchewan, northern 

 Ontario, New Brunswick, and Cape Breton Island south 

 to the Gulf coast and central Texas, mainly east of the 

 Mississippi; winters from the Ohio and Delaware 

 valleys south to Venezuela and Peru. 



Tlie Broad-winged Hawk i.s a common though 

 locally dislril)uted Hawk, partial to deep woods. 

 It will remain motionless for hours, apparently 

 asleep hut in reality wide awake, for the least 

 movement in the brush below of a prospective 

 victim will send him from his perch like an 

 arrow. He is more silent and more fond of 

 solitude than other Hawks. His call note is 

 much weaker, closely resembling that of the 

 Wood Pewee, but louder, higher pitched, and 

 with the last note short and less plaintive than 

 the notes of the Flycatcher, and having a certain 

 ventriloquistical quality which makes it difficult 

 to judge the distance of the author. 



As far as my experience goes, it seems to be 

 a beneficial and harmless species, confining its 

 food to small animals, frogs, mice, etc., and 

 seldom molesting the farmer's chickens. Agri- 

 culturists with whom I have talked do not always 

 share this view but then it is difficult to eradicate 

 an idea so firmly intrenched as the belief that 

 all Hawks arc demons. 



Of the economic status of this species, Dr. A. 

 K. Fisher, says : " The Broad-winged Hawk 

 feeds largelv on insects, small mammals, snakes, 

 toads, and frogs, and occasionally on small birds. 

 It is especially fond of the larvae or caterpillars 

 of the large moths which feed upon the leaves 

 of fruit and shade trees. These insects are too 

 large and formidable for the smaller insectiv- 

 orous birds to attack : hence their principal 

 enemies are Hawks, of which the one under con- 

 sideration is the most important. It feeds ex- 

 tensively also upon grasshoppers, crickets, 

 cicad.-e. May beetles and other coleoptera. Like 

 the other Buzzard Haw'ks, it is fond of meadow 



mice, and eats also considerable numbers of chip- 

 munks, shrews, red squirrels, and occasionally 

 rabbits and moles. IVobably the greatest damage 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



BROAD-WINGED HAWK (J oat. size) 

 A beneficial and harmless species 



done bv this Hawk is the destruction of toads 

 and snakes, which are mainly insectivorous and 

 hence beneficial to the farnuT." 



R. I. Br.\sher. 



