188 NOTES ON THE 



from the talons of his spare foot squarely on the first hand he 

 reached, every time piercing the flesh to the bone. Indeed one 

 barb of his cruel talons had reached through the tendons of 

 the hand and the skin of its palmer surface. It has required 

 several similar experiences to enable me to learn the value of 

 securing a specimen of a "living hawk." (A hint to the wise). 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Only distinguishable from B. borealis by its larger size, 

 greater extent of the dark color of the throat, and the preval- 

 ence of the rufous on the abdomen and tibiae. 



Length (female), 23 to 25; wing, 16.50 to 17; tail, 9 to 10. 



Habitat, western North America. 



BUTEO LINEATUS (Gmelin). (339.) 

 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 



While always met with in migration, its local habits confine 

 it much more exclusively to the timber, and the unfrequented 

 forests especially, which leads superficial observers to believe 

 it a more northern species than the Red-tail. This is a mis- 

 take for they are nearly as numerous as that species, and 

 almost indistinguishable except by the last circumstance, if 

 not in hand, or very well under observation. I have had but 

 one collector to assist me whose observations of the nest were 

 of sufficient value to be quoted, but his have corroborated my 

 previous impressions that this species builds a little more 

 artistic and notably a deeper nest. This hawk has now been 

 seen as frequently as the Red-tail during every winter month. 

 They arrive in their migratory movements about as early as 

 the others in spring, and remain as late in autumn. As already 

 intimated, their habits associate them with the forest mostly, 

 where they destroy Ruffed-grouse, rabbits and squirrels for 

 their food, only very rarely disturbing domestic poultry. 



Whole sections of the State where pariries, or only quite 

 small, scattering trees and brushlands predominate, are almost 

 unvisited by this hawk. A trait of the species which has 

 been noticed before, has attracted my attention in two in- 

 stances of my own opportunities for observation, namely; the 

 equal share borne by the male in all the duties of incubation, 

 and rearing the young. He shares the collecting, and arrang- 

 ing of all materials in the structure of the nest, and instantly 

 occupies it in the absence of the ffemale. A succession of ob- 

 servations have gone far towards establishing the conclusion 



