HAWKS 231 



and Owls in sycamores and live oaks were occasionally occupied. 

 Occasionally a nest would be found on the ground near the top 

 of a canyon or on the shelf of a cliff, and invariably this seemed 

 to be a nest of some other species which had been patched up. 

 The bird sits very closely indeed, often not leaving the nest 

 after repeated thumpings on the base of the tree, and I have 

 had them even remain until I touched the base of the nest 

 before they left it, but they are usually very tame, even not 

 in the nesting season. 



A very good way of telling whether or not a Hawk's nest is 

 occupied, and this applies to all species, is to carefully scan 

 the edge of the nest from the ground, aided by good field 

 glasses if necessary, when numerous feathers will usually be 

 seen adhering to the edge of the nest, being the downy breast 

 feathers left by the birds in their comings and goings, while 

 often freshly broken twigs and leaves are found under occupied 

 nests. 



Though collectors have reported finding as many as four 

 eggs in a nest I never found any number but two and think 

 this is the usual set. Two eggs taken from an old Crow's nest 

 at Lakeside, California, May 9, 1891, were advanced in incu- 

 bation. These eggs were a greenish white color quite heavily 

 peppered about the larger ends with umber, brown, reddish 

 brown and gray, and measure 2,29 x 1.79, 2.38 x 1.79. 



A set from a collector in South Dakota was found in a 

 nest placed in an ash shrub ten feet from the ground, near the 

 James River, town of Huron. These were fresh May 18, 1887, 

 yellowish white in color and very slightly and faintly marked 

 with grayish spots. These eggs measure 2.35 x 1.82, 2.26 x 

 1.82. 



*''^343. Buteo platypterus (yieiW.^. Broad-winged Hawk. 



Plumage of adults : grayish brown above, margined with huffy and 

 rufous ; two bars on the fuscous whitish tipped tail ; below whitish, heavily 

 barred with transverse marks of rufous. Immature plumage : tail grayish 

 brown with four or five blackish, rather faint bars ; below whitish, streaked 



