284 BUTEO HARLAN I. 



large, straggling flocks at such an elevation as to be nearly invisible. They appear to fol- 

 low river valleys in their course, avoiding the more elevated districts. Mr. Will Perham,. 

 to whom I am indebted for valuable facts relative to the movements of Hawks, captures 

 many of these birds during the spring, often securing in a single season, more Red-tailed 

 Hawks than a casual observer would suppose were to be found in the whole state; thus 

 during two weeks in April, 1878, he took about three hundred of these fine birds and a 

 number of other species. 



About the first week in May, the Red-tailed Hawks having become dispersed through- 

 out the country, begin to breed. The nest is placed on a high pine or other tree, in some 

 secluded locality, often in a thick swamp. The young leave the nest by the first of July 

 and soon after learn to forage for themselves. In hunting, these Hawks keep at a con- 

 siderable height, sailing in circles with broadly extended wings; then, upon perceiving 

 their prey, they will plunge obli(iuely downward and seize it. They capture rabbits, 

 squirrels. Grouse, Ducks, and other wild game but are particularly fond of domestic fowls, 

 visiting the farmer's poultry-yard with such presistent regularity that they have received, 

 the name of Hen Hawk. When pressing onward in a straight line, the flight of the Red- 

 tails is steady, the wings being moved regularly, but rather quickly. Tliey remain north 

 until late in October when they pass southward much as they come, but the flocks are 

 not as large for the birds are more generally distributed and thus occupy a greater extent 

 of country. 



BUTEO HARLANI. 

 Harlan's Hawk. 

 Buteo Harlani AcD., S\n. Birds N. A.; 1839, 6. 



DESCRIPTION. 



Sp. Cn. Form, robust. Size, large. Tarsus, feathered in front for more than half its length. Four outer quills are- 

 incised on the inner webs. 



Color. AdiLll. General colors throughout, dark sooty-broTra , with the wings, excepting tips of primaries, finely, but 

 irregulaily barred with a.shy-brown and whitish. The tail is mottled with ashy-brown which becumes decidedly rufous 

 next tl e slaft of the sublerminal portions of the feathei-s. Below, tlie featliers of the flanks and under tail covert" are ob- 

 scurely banded with ashy-brcwn. The basal two th.irds of tlie feathers on head, neck all around, and breast to middle of 

 body, are pure white. 



Young. JMuch browner than the above described, with the feathers edged with ashy; in fact, the whole bird is occa- 

 sionally spotted with this latter named color. Iris, brown. Cere and feet, greenish. Bill, black. 



OBSERVATIONS. 



The description of the adult of this rare Hawk, is taken from a fine .specimen, now in my possession, which was sliot 

 at Wat'iontown, Pennsylvania, on the thirtieth of March, 1875. The young stage is from a skin which I have seen in the 

 collection of Mr. William Brewster, which came, I think, from Texas. Readily known from all stages oiborea/is, by the 

 pure white on the ba-^^e of the feathers of the anterior portions, and from other Hawks in the melani-tic condition, by the 

 feathering of the tar.sus and incision of tlie quills. I had long suspected that the white of the basal portiim of tlie feathers 

 of the anterior parts, wrould, in some specimens, become extended so as to occupy nearly the whole of tlie feathers; thus I 

 was not surprised when I learned from the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club for January, 18H0. page 51, that 

 Mr. Ridgway actually had a .specimen in hand where the lower anterior portions were nearly white; hut the white tail 

 of this sp, chnen, as dcscrihed, was certainly unexpected. Distributed throughout Southern United States, north t') Penn- 

 eyirar.ia, but L« more commipn in Texas. 



