Auk 



1 5 Peabody, Nesting of Kridcrs Haivk. y^ 



tained two eggs. The three eggs taken are treated, arbitrarily, 



as one set. 



Three eggs: No. i [May 5], fresh, small, ovate, 2.32 x 1.82; white, with 

 bluish tinge. Beautifully painted here and there, chiefly at apex, with 

 .small blotches of vinaceous cinnamon, the only egg thus colored and 

 marked in the whole series. No. 2 [June 9], incubation nearly complete. 

 Rounded ovate, 2.33 X 1.87 ; spotted and specked, mostly near apex, with 

 purplish cinnamon, thus intermediate between i and 3. No. 3, nearly 

 oval, 2.34 X 1.82 ; specks of cinnamon everywhere; at small end a circlet 

 of stippled and marbled cinnamon blotches. 



The nest containing these eggs had been occupied for years. 

 It is situated within forty rods of a farm-house. A number of 

 times, 1 am told, one bird of the pair has been shot, the remain- 

 ing bird persistently remating and returning. The eggs were 

 taken in 1892 and in 1893. The tenacity of the birds to this 

 particular nest cannot be attributed to lack of eligible sites. 



While loath to generalize, especially on mooted points, 1 am 

 yet very sure that the eggs in the series just considered much 

 more closely resemble in their markings the eggs of B. /meatus 

 than they do those of B. borealis proper. As to characteri.stic 

 traits and habits, I have observed nothing whatever to differ- 

 entiate Krider's Hawk from the species to which it is allied. 



I must mention that a careful collector sent me, in 1893, 

 from Nicollet Lake, he having taken previously a set of Krider's 

 Hawk with parent bird, a set of the eggs of typical borealis. 

 The.se eggs are characteristic of the species, and radically unlike 

 any eggs in my series of Krider's Hawk, except one egg of 

 set I. A nest of V>w\.&o'a, — x\ol surely borealis^ and certainly not 

 swainso?ii, — was taken this season near the city of St. Paul. 

 I am confident that these eggs will prove next season to have 

 been those of Krider's Hawk. I am also confident that a 

 more critical search for and study of the Minnesota Buteos will 

 greatly extend the known breeding range of Krider's Hawk, 

 many ' Red-tail ' eggs taken in this and adjoining States being, 

 very likely, referable to the subspecies. I shall be very grate- 

 ful to any collectors in Minnesota, the Dakolas and Manitoba, 

 who may be kind enough, now or hereafter, to send me their 

 notes on B. borealis, and any thoroughly sifted and reliable 

 information as to the occurrence and breeding of Krider's Hawk 

 in their vicinity. 



