340 Proceedings of ludUnia Academy of Science. 



79. BUTEO LINEATUS LINEATUS (Gmelill). RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. (3.39) 



This beavitiful hawk was scarcely less common and familiar to me in my 

 boyhood days than was the preceding species ; indeed, in some years I am 

 inclined to think it was the more common species. They, too, built their 

 nests in the tops of the tallest oaks, beech, and sycamores. I remember 

 climbing, in the spring of 1884, to a nest well tow^ard the top of a large 

 white oak (Quercus ana), in the woods southwest of our house, only to 

 find in the nest three newly-hatched young instead of a set of nice fresh 

 eggs for which I had hoped. 



I think the habit of circling high in air and screaming the while is quite 

 as characteristic of this species as it is of the Red-tail. 



While the Red-shouldered Hawk is probably a permanent resident of each 

 of the three counties considered in this paper, the majority of the individ- 

 uals go south in the winter. On their return northward in the spring, they 

 are sometimes gregarious, as evidenced by a scene which I witnessed in 

 Clay County, just east of Terre Haute. April 3, 1879. In a large meadow 

 at the side of the road, I saw a great number of hawks — I estimated the 

 number at loO to 200 — flying about over the meadow. They were flying 

 low. sometimes circling about as if hunting, but the general movement was 

 northward. They were certainly doing some hunting. Hylas and garter- 

 snakes being the principal victims. The majority of these hawks were the 

 Red-shouldered, but some were doubtless Red-tails. This is the only time I 

 have ever seen hawks together in anything like such numbers. 



Both of these species were commonly known as chicken-hawks, and were 

 commonly regarded as being very destructive to poultry. They doubtless 

 do invade the barnyard now and then, but their destructiveness to domestic 

 poultry has been greatly exaggerated. 



Sometimes a certain individual hawk will acquire the "chicken habit", 

 just as some dogs become "sheep-killing dogs", and then the only way out 

 of it for the farmer is to kill the hawk. On the whole, however, the great 

 majority of each of these species kill so many injurious rodents that they 

 must be classed with the useful birds. 



As I have already said, the Red-shouldered Hawk was common in Carroll, 

 Vigo, and Monroe counties, though I have but few actual records. On 

 March 15, 1885, I saw one near the Armstrong Pond at Camden. There 

 was a good specimen in the collection of Dr. Scovell. of Terre Haute, taken 

 by him near that city, and I noted one April 1, 1888. 



80. BUTEO PLATYPTERUS (Vieillot). BROAD- WINGED HAWK. (343) 



Rare summer resident. I have seen it only on a few occasions. One of 

 these was on October 30, 1886, when Prof. O. P. Jenkins, Mr. Louis J. Rett- 

 ger. and I saw one on Eel River in Clay County, near the Vigo County line. 

 I saw another on Coal Creek in April, 1889. I have seen it rarely in Carroll 

 County, and only in spring or autumn. I have no record of the species for 

 IMonroe County. 



81. ArCHIBUTEO LAGOPT'S SANCTI-.TOHANXIS (Cinoliu). 

 ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. (347a) 



Probably a rare spring and fall migrant ; possibly a summer resident. 

 One seen northeast of Terre Haute, in October. 1880. A rare winter visi- 

 tant in Carroll County. No i-ceord for Monroe County. 



