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at the height of about sixty feet from the ground. The nest con- 

 tained two eggs at the time it was discovered, which were just on 

 the point of hatching. It was constructed of sticks, and was 

 lined with moss. Both birds were about the spot. The male 

 bird manifesting much more courage than his mate in resistance 

 to the intruders, was shot. The female was wounded, but escaped. 

 The egg of the B. calurus measures 2^-^ inches in length by 

 ly\- in breadth. Its capacity is considerably less than that of 

 the B. montanus ; its shape is a much more oblong oval ; one 

 end is evidently more pointed than the other. Its ground color 

 is a dirty cream-white. It is covered, chietly at the larger end, 

 with blotches and smaller markings of a dark shade of a brown 

 almost exactly corresponding with that known as Vandyke- 

 brown, with smaller markings and spottings of a lighter shade 

 of the same. The latter are distributed at intervals over its 

 entire surface. 



Buteo insignatiis ? The Canada Buzzard or Brown Buzzard. 

 In the collection of eggs obtained in California by Mr. Samuels, 

 were two eggs of a hawk which he had no doubt belonged to a bird 

 of this species. The parent was shot on the nest, but escaped into 

 a deep ravine below, and was not obtained. The egg is different 

 from that of any other hawk that I am acquainted with, and it 

 has been assigned to this bird, on the strength of Mr. Samuels's 

 impressions. It should be added, however, that his view of the 

 bird was necessarily incomplete, and he may have been mistaken 

 in regard to it. It is possibly the egg of Buteo Bah-dii, (a variety 

 of -B. Sivainsoni,) or it may belong to the B.elegans, all of which 

 bear sufficient resemblance to the B. insignatus to be confounded 

 with it, without an opportunity of closer inspection than he pos- 

 sessed. The nest was on a large white-oak, over a deep ravine, 

 on San Antonio Creek, near Petaluma. It was very large, was 

 constructed of coarse sticks, and was at least sixty feet from the 

 ground. 



In regard to the habits and the geographical distribution of 

 this hawk, but little is known to naturalists. It was first de- 

 scribed from a specimen belonging to the Natural History Society 

 of Montreal, and obtained in that vicinity. Specimens have since 

 been met with in California ; but to what extent it is distributed 



