THE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 407 
of our species; we call our Vultures, Buzzards; and our proper Buzzards 
(Latin, Buteo, old French Busart) are merely “Hawks” or “Hen Hawks.” 
The Red-shouldered Buzzard is, after the Sparrow Hawk, the commonest 
bird of prey in the state. It is well distributed, since it is content to occupy, 
if need be, a very small piece of woodland, but it does insist upon having 
undivided possession of that little, at least so far as other birds of the same 
species are concerned. 
From this little stretch of 
woodland, however humble, the 
Buzzard sallies forth at intervals 
to view the landscape o’er, moy- 
ing forward vigorously to a well 
accustomed haunt, or else circling 
aloft above the home woods to an 
immense height, and then drift- 
ing away across the country in 
great, lazy, sun-burned circles, 
vntil the sight of game calls it 
down. <Altho its station is so 
lofty, the prey it seeks is usually 
of the humblest,—moles, mice, 
gophers, lizards, and __ insects. 
Poultry is rarely taken and then 
only under extenuating circum- 
stances, as when a chick has dis- 
obeyed its mother’s injunctions 
and gone too far afield. 
Red-shouldered Hawks win- 
ter regularly from about the mid- ea Tres STC Re apes os ae 
: NEST AND EGGS OF THE RED-SHOULDERED 
dle of the state southward and HAWK 
casually to the Lake shore, but 
everywhere in diminished numbers. The winter birds are probably from the 
Taken near Youngstown. Pheto by Geo. L. Fordyce. 
extreme northern limits of the range, in Ontario; and | have fancied that it 
was on this account that they showed a tendency to temporary albinism, or 
seasonal whitening of plumage. ‘The return journey is accomplished late 
in February or early in March, and by the middle of the latter month most 
of the Hawks are mated. This has not been accomplished without consider- 
able aerial evolutions, and much affectionate screaming, such as does credit 
to these ‘ignoble’ birds of prey. 
For the nest an old domicile of the Crow is often pressed into service, 
but where the birds have little to fear in propria persona, they rear an unpre- 
