360 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
V. BUTEO 
(A) Boreas. Red-tailed Hawk (or Buzzard). (Eastern) 
“ Red-tail.” ‘* Hen Hawk.” 
(In Massachusetts, a resident throughout the year, but less 
common than the next species.) 
(a). Extreme length, nearly two feet. Above, dark brown, 
marked with fulvous (chiefly on the head), and with white 
(chiefly behind). Tail, chestnut-red, tipped with white. and 
sub-tipped with black, but beneath of a uniform silvery gray. 
Under parts, white (or tinged), marked with a varying shade of 
brown, which generally forms an interrupted band across the 
lower breast. <A fine ¢mmature specimen, now before me, is 
more than two feet in length. Above, dark umber, more or 
less interrupted by white, chiefly on the tail-coverts. Beneath, 
white; sides blotched with umber-brown, forming a dark zone 
across the lower breast. Feathers of the thigh spotted or im- 
perfectly barred with a lighter shade. Tail, medium brown 
(often tinged with gray, but here with chestnut), barred with 
blackish, tipped with whitish ; beneath, light gray, and faintly 
barred. 
(b). The nest does not differ from that of the Red-shoul- 
dered Hawk, unless in being sometimes less well lined, occa- 
sionally rather less accessible, and more often built in dry 
woods. For a description of the eggs, see B, b. 
(c). The Red-tailed Buzzards are the most majestic of our 
hawks, though surpassed by many in activity and speed. They 
are in southern New England resident throughout the year, 
but are said to occur to the northward only during the sumnmer- 
season. Except in winter, they are much less common than 
the Red-shouldered Hawk, whose habits are so very similar, 
that I shall abbreviate this biography, and refer my readers to 
the next. They sometimes sail even a mile without moving 
the wings, or mount in circles till nearly lost to sight, but they 
are ordinarily dependent upon the impetus given by occasional 
flappings. ‘They feed upon large birds, rabbits, squirrels, 
snakes, frogs, etc., and not unfrequently fall upon their prey 
a 
