FALCONID^ DIURNAL RAPTORES. 473 



is clearest being pale rufous, bordered with dusky, but as the white grows more silvery 

 they darken into black ; the longest (fourth) has eight of these spots, including the sub- 

 terminal, very broad one. Fourth quill longest; fifth, just perceptibly shorter; third, a 

 little shorter; second, considerably longer than sixth ; first equal to ninth. Wing, 13.00; 

 tail, 8.50; tarsus, 2.90; middle toe. 1.33. 



Adult female (No. 11,991, Washington, D. C.: Dr. W. Wallace). Generally similar to the 

 male, but rufous more extended, this tinging the outer webs of secondaries and pri- 

 maries. On the under parts the rufous is rather deeper, and the tibiae are strongly 

 barred, and even the lower tail- coverts have obsolete spots of the same. Wing, 13.75; 

 tail,9.00; tarsus, 2.90; middle toe, 1.50. 



Young male (No. 1,210). Ground color of head, neck, and under parts white; feathers 

 of head and neck with median stripes of dark clear vandyke-brown, leaving a supercili- 

 ary space, and the ear- coverts scarcely striped; a blackish suffusion over cheeks, form- 

 ing a "mustache," and large longitudinal spot of the same on middle of throat; breast, 

 abdomen, sides, and flanks, with rather sparse, irregularly sagittate spots of clear van- 

 dyke-brown, those on the sides of breast more longitudinal; tibiae with a faint ochra- 

 ceous tinge, and with sparse, small, and irregular specks of brown; lower tail-coverts 

 with a very few distant isolated bars of the same. Upper parts generally, clear dark 

 vandyke-brown; interscapulars and wing-coverts edged (most broadly beneath the sur- 

 face) with pale rufous; middle wing- coverts with much white spotting on upper webs, 

 partially exposed; wing-coverts generally, and scapulars. narrowly bordered with white; 

 secondaries narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with about four (exposed) bands of 

 paler grayish brown; primaries inclining to black; faintly margined at ends with 

 whitish; outer webs anterior to the emargination, rufous white, with distant, narrow 

 bars of blackish, these widening on inner quills; upper tail-coverts white with trans- 

 verse spots of blackish. Tail dark vandyke-brown, narrowly tipped with white, and 

 crossed with numerous narrow bands of pale grayish brown, these obsolete towards the 

 base. Lining of the wing pale ochraceous.with a few irregularly cordate spots of dark 

 brown toward edge of wing; under surface of primaries mostly white, the dusky bars 

 not extending across the web, except on inner quills. Wing, 13.25; tail, 9.30; tarsus,2.85; 

 middle toe, 1.40. 



Young female (No. 11,994, Washington, D. C., January: C. Drexler). Almost precisely 

 similar ; tibiae unspotted ; light bands of the tail more sharply defined basally, and pale 

 mottled rufous, instead of pale ashy brown. Wing, 14.50; tail, 9.60; tarsus, 3.10; middle 

 toe, 1.45. 



This is decidedly the most numerous of the larger hawks in most 

 portions of Illinois, especially in the timbered districts. It does 

 not differ much in its habits from other species, except that it is 

 a very noisy bird, its very loud but plaintive and not unmusical 

 cry of kee'-oe, kee'-oe, kee'-oe, being frequently heard, especially 

 during the breeding season, most often uttered as the bird sails in 

 broad circles high over the tree-tops. The food of the Bed- 

 shouldered Hawk consists chiefly of frogs, reptiles, and field mice, 

 but it occasionally, like others of its tribe, makes a descent upon 

 the poultry-yard. 



