290 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



bird, writes me that in Massachusetts they usually begin to build their 

 nests about the first of April, selecting some tall tree near the middle of the 

 woods, the branches of which form a crotch near its trunk. To this chosen 

 spot the female carries a sufficient quantity of sticks for its outside (the 

 male taking no very active part in the matter), and for its inside she uses 

 the bark from the dead branches of the chestnut, which she beats and pecks 

 to pieces with her bill, making it soft and pliable, or gathers the fallen 

 leaves of the pine, or some other soft material, which she finds conveniently, 

 as a linino-, which is about one inch in thickness. It is thirteen inches in 

 diameter from outside to outside, and seven inches in diameter on the inside, 

 while its depth is two and a half inches. The female usually lays five eggs, 

 which are spherical, of a dirty-white color, and marked with large blotches 

 of brown; on some they cover almost tlie whole egg, while others are 

 marked mostly on the large end, and some even of the same nest are so 

 faintly marked as to appear almost wholly white. They are 2.12 inches in 

 lencrth and 1.95 in diameter. 



In Jamaica, according to Mr. March, these Hawks do not confine them- 

 selves to any particular mode or place for breeding, height seeming to be 

 their chief object. He has found their nest in a quite accessible tree, not 

 more than twenty feet from the ground, and near a frequented path. In 

 another instance a pair nested for several years on the roof of the turret of 

 the belfry of the Spanishtown Cathedral church. The nest he describes as a 

 platform of dry sticks, more than a foot across and two or three inches thick. 

 The bed of the nest is about six inches across and two deep, of fine inner 

 bark, grass, and leaves, containing four or five eggs, nearly spherical, meas- 

 uring 2.25 by 2.75 inches, of a dirty or clayish white, dashed with blotches 

 and spots of vandyke-brown and umber, often running with a light shade 

 into the ground-color. 



The eggs of the Eed-tail exhibit great variations in nearly every respect 

 except their shape, which is pretty uniformly a spheroidal-oval. Their ground- 

 color varies from white to a dingy rusty drab, their markings vary greatly 

 in colors, shades, size, frequency, and distribution. In some the markings 

 are small, few, and light, and the egg appears to be of an almost homoge- 

 neous brownish-white. In others the ground is completely concealed by 

 large and confluent blotches of deep and dark purplish-brown, burnt umber, 

 and a peculiar shade known as Dutcli umber. In some the markings are 

 distributed in fine and frequent granulations, diffused over the entire surface 

 of the egg, producing the effect of a color of uniform umber brown, through 

 which the ground of yellowish-white can only be traced by a mngnifying- 

 giass. Four eggs in my cabinet average 2.22 inches in length by 1.72 in 

 breadth. The largest egg measures 2.55 by 1.90 inches ; the smallest, 2.10 

 by 1.70. The capacity of the largest to the smallest is nearly as five to 

 four. 



The season in which this Hawk deposits its eggs varies considerably. 



