THE SWAIN SON HAWK. 509 



2.45 (62.2). Adult female, length: 20.50-22.00 (520.7-558.8) ; extent 50.00-56.00 

 (1270-1422.4) : wing 16.00 (406.4) : tail 9.50 (241.3 ). 



Recognition Marks. — Crow size ; white throat ; chestnut pectoral band of 

 male, dark chestnut and blackish of underparts in connnon melanistic plumage; 

 usually displa_ys whitish rump ; tail shorter and all proportions stouter as compared 

 with ^larsh Hawk (which also has white rump) ; less stout and without red tail 

 as distinguished from B. borcalis calitnis. 



Nesting. — Nest: a stout platform of sticks lined with bark-strips and fresh 

 leaves, placed at moderate heights in deciduous trees, sometimes on cliiifs, rarely on 

 ground. Occasionally an old nest of Crow or Alagpie is refitted. Eggs: 1-4, 

 usually 2, pale greenish-, bluish-, or grayish-white, sometimes tinged or obscurely 

 spotted, rarely blotched with dull rufous. Av. size, 2.28x1.74 (57.9x44.2). 

 Season: j\Iay 10- June i; one brood. 



General Range. — Western North America, from \Visconsin, lllindis, .\rkan- 

 sas, and Texas to the Pacific coast ; north to the Arctic regions, and south to 

 Argentine Republic. Casual east to Maine and Massachusetts. Breeds nearly 

 thruout its North .American range. 



Range in Washington. — Common summer resident east of Cascades; less 

 common resident and migrant on West-side. 



Authorities.— Brewster, V,. N. O. C. Yll. Oct. 1882, p, 227. Ra. D-\ J. E. 



Specimens. — (I', of W. ) P". Prov. E. 



SWAINSON'S HAWK, nowhere common, is still the commonest 

 Buteo in ^^'ashington. Its plumage is subject to considerable variation ; so 

 much so, indeed, that the bird is best defined b}- habit and action, and known 

 to the amateur as not red-tailed and not long-tailed, ergo, Swainson's. This 

 Buzzard is t\-picall}- a bird of the [irairies, being found from the eastern edge 

 of the Great Plains west to the Pacific Coast. It is not found commonly 

 in the mountains, but does appear occasionally about the open places of the 

 \\'est-side, where it undoubtedly breeds. 



Altho a prairie bird, Swainson's is a little heavy on the wing. \Mien he 

 flaps he does so with exaggerated zeal, as tho to prove ability in a little wonted 

 exercise; but as a sailor, or perhaps one should say sailer, he is a past master. 

 He leans hard upon the breeze, and it carries him whithersoever he will. He 

 travels without propulsion other than that of the wind, for he has learned to 

 balance gravitv against wind-thrust in a fashion wliicli not even the \\'right 

 Brothers have yet attained. But because the plains are large and its land- 

 marks few, the Swainson Hawk is not infrequently seen at rest, upon a fence- 

 post by the roadside, on a tall sage-bush, or upon a willow by the river's brink. 

 In the wooded country they are seldom seen a-wing, and e\'idently spend much 

 time studving the ground from the vantage point of tree-tops or commanding 

 limbs. 



Of course the bird has won the highly distinctive name of "Hen Hawk." 

 because he looks as if he might carry ofT a hen. But as matter of fact, he 

 wouldn't. He is content with far humbler quarry, such as mice, moles. 



