NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 173 



forests, where its favorite breeding place is on the edges of ravines. 

 The nest is placed in some large tree or on a ledge of rock, and is built 

 of sticks with a scanty lining of wool and hair. The eggs are three 

 or four in number, of an oval form, bluish-white, with pale brown 

 blotches and spots of yellowish-brown, chiefly at the larger end. A 

 set of three eggs in my cabinet, from England, measure 2.30x1.75, 

 2.28x1.72, 2.30x1.68. 



337. Buteo borealis (Gmel.) [436.] 



Red-tailed Ha'nrki 



Hab. Eastern portions of North America, west to the Great Plains. 



The Red-tailed Buzzard, in its light and dark geographical races, 

 is distributed throughout the whole of North America. This species is 

 abundant in the eastern portion. A large Hawk and a notorious visitor 

 to barn-yards, though lacking much of the pluck and dash of the mem- 

 bers of some of the preceding genera it has the equally successful 

 quality of perseverance. The food of this species is chiefly small 

 quadrupeds, red squirrels, gophers and ground moles, and the remains 

 of these rodents may always be found in this bird's nest containing 

 young. The Hawk will always be found common where these small 

 animals are most abundant. 



The nest is placed in high trees in deep woods ; it is large and 

 bulky, though comparatively shallow ; made of sticks and twigs, mixed 

 together with corn-husks, grass, moss, and on the inside may be found 

 a few feathers. Sometimes the deserted nest of a crow or that of another 

 hawk is fitted up and used. Mr. J. Parker Norris records a nest occu- 

 pied first by the Great Horned Owl and afterwards by the Red-tailed 

 Hawk, each year ; the young owls leave the nest before the hawk is 

 ready to occupy it. 



The number of eggs laid by this species is two or three, rarely 

 four. Mr. Norris has a series of twenty-seven sets collected in Connecti- 

 cut, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Mississippi, and Texas ; nineteen of these sets 

 are of two eggs, six of three, and two of four.* The time of deposit- 

 ing the eggs in the United States varies according to locality and cir- 

 cumstances, but they are generally laid in March or April. Eggs are 

 found in different stages of incubation as late as the middle or latter 

 part of May. A large series of eggs present amazing differences in size 

 and markings ; their ground color is white or bluish-white ; some are 

 entirely unmarked, while others are very heavily blotched and splashed 



*For a detailed description of this series see Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. XI, pp. 67-69. Since 

 the above was written Mr. Norris has increased his series to thirty-six sets. 



