C. H. Merriam Birds of Connecticut. . 8 5 



municating with it. A pair of doves that had nested there were 

 attacked and killed by a pair of Sparrow Hawks who took posses- 

 sion of their nest, laid four eggs, and commenced to sit. During 

 incubation they found the farmer's chickens very convenient for food 

 too much so for their own good. I saw both birds after they were 

 killed ; also their four eggs, two of which are now in my cabinet."* 

 In Elizabeth, New Jersey, several years ago, I saw a pair of Sparrow 

 Hawks fly up under the eaves of an old barn, and drag a couple of 

 Swallows out of their nests ! Mr. Sage has seen it in January (Jan. 

 6, 1877), near Portland, Conn., and Dr. Wood writes me that he has 

 occasionally taken it in winter. 



"Sparhawkes there are also," wrote Morton in 1632, "the fairest, 

 and best, shaped birds that I have ever beheld of that kinde, those 

 that are litle, no use is made of any of them, neither are they re- 

 garded, I onely tried conclusions with a Lannaret at first comming ; 

 and when I found, what was in that bird, I turned him going : but 

 for so much as I have observed of those birds, they may be a fitt 

 present for a prince ; and for goodnesse too be preferred before the 

 Barbary, or any other used in Christendome, and especially the 

 Lannars and Lannarets."f The above may have referred to the 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



163. Buteo borealis (Gmelin) Vieillot. Red-tailed Hawk ; Hen Hawk. 



A common resident, but more numerous in early spring and during 

 the fall migrations than at other times of the year. The migrants 

 arrive early in March, and in fall, may be seen, in considerable num- 

 bers, in September, October, and November. On the 25th of Sep- 

 tember, 1875, 1 saw, near New Haven, a flock of twenty-six Red-tailed 

 Hawks, soaring high, and sailing slowly southward. The day was 

 clear and cool, and there was little wind. 



Mr. W. W. Coe, of Portland, Conn., has been remarkably fortunate 

 in finding the nests of this Hawk, having taken, during the past five 

 years, nearly forty of its eggs ! The best time to go for them seems 

 to be about the middle of April, but he has found nests, containing 

 eggs, at all dates from March 30th (1875) to May 23d (1873), though 

 the young generally hatch during the latter part of April or early in 

 May. The Stadtmtiller brothers found a nest, near New Haven, 

 April 13, 1877, containing three eggs which "were just beginning to 



* Am. Nat, vol. viii, No. 5, p. 268, May, 1874. 



f New English Canaan, p. 50. [Reprinted from Force's Hist. Tracts, vol. ii, T. 5.] 



