Across the Fields. 277 



Western America, being found regularly as far east as the Mississippi River, 



and there are numerous records of stragglers eastward to the Atlantic 



States. They breed regularly from Texas northward to 



Swainson s aw . ^.j^^ Arctic regions and winter in the more southern parts 



Buteo swainsoni Bonap. r 1 • m '1 



of their North American range. The adult birds have the 

 forehead narrowly white. The feathers of the upper parts are grayish brown, 

 margined with buff or rusty brown. The tail is lighter than the back and is 

 crossed by a varying number of dusky bands, which show more plainly below. 

 The throat is white and there is a broad cinnamon red area forming- a band 

 across the breast and chest. The rest of the lower parts are white or cream 

 color, more or less barred and spotted or streaked with shades of brown from 

 dusky to pale reddish. From this phase of plumage the birds grade in every 

 degree to a uniform dusky brown plumage known as the dark phase. 



Immature birds resemble the adults, but lack the chest band of cinnamon 

 red, the entire under parts being cream or buff in color streaked and spotted 

 with dusky brown. 



The birds nest in trees and in the giant cactus from ten to eighty feet 

 from the ground. The eggs are colored from bluish white to cream, are fre- 

 quently immaculate, but have more often markings of different shades of 

 brown, which vary from light speckling to dark washes. They are two inches 

 and a quarter long and about an inch and three quarters in their other 

 diameter. 



In the Middle Atlantic States our most common large hawk is the Red- 

 tailed or Hen Hawk. It is essentially a bird of the more open country, and 



is often found away from the woods where some solitary 

 Red-tailed Hawk, j.^.^^ j^ ^ feature of an otherwise unbroken field or meadow. 



Late in the fall one of these birds will frequently select 

 some piece of meadow or low marshy ground, where daily he may be 

 observed presiding from his chosen tree over the destiny of the mice and 

 other small animals that abound in such localities. Apparently in supreme 

 repose, his eye is ever watchful and woe to the unlucky mouse that enters his 

 range of vision. A sudden swoop, almost a fall from the perch, and the prey 

 is secured, the bird is back on the limb, left a moment before, and the small 

 victim is almost as quickly torn apart and swallowed. Such is the regular 

 method of his life, and though now and again some poultry yard may be 

 raided, this is not a Hen Hawk but the veriest cat among birds. 



