RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 517 



known only three specimens taken here prior to 1867." At 

 Springfield, less than twenty miles in a direct line north of 

 East Windsor Hill, and at nearly the same elevation above 

 the sea, I have known them to be quite common during 

 several winters within the last ten years. Mr. J. G. Scott 

 says it was common at Westfield in 1867, and not rare 

 during the three or four winters immediately preceding. 

 When numerous this species is very destructive to the Ruffed 

 Grouse, which forms its principal food. In some localities 

 they sometimes hunt them almost to extermination. 



Mr. C. J. Maynard informs me that he is confident that 

 this species sometimes breeds in Massachusetts. He says he 

 once observed a pair at a locality in Weston until the latter 

 part of May ; after this time he had no opportunity of ob- 

 serving them, but he feels sure that they bred there. This 

 is not improbable, since its usual breeding range embraces 

 the greater part of northern New England, and probably the 

 mountains of Western Massachusetts. 



Dr. Wood mentions in his letters another interesting fact 

 respecting this bird, which I think all careful observers are 

 apt to notice, not only in this species but as a general fact ; 

 namely, that the birds in immature plumage are often larger 

 than any specimens obtained in mature plumage. Dr. Wood 

 observes, "the young are very unlike the adult both in size 

 and markings ; the young is the largest until after moulting, 

 when the wing and tail feathers never again acquire their 

 former dimensions. The same difference is observable in 

 the Bald Eagle between the young and the adult."* I have 

 myself observed it in Ardea herodias and other Herons, in 

 Thrushes, and in Larus argentatus, and other species of 

 Laridce. This difference in size between the adult and the 

 young has also been reported to me by Messrs. Maynard 

 and Bennett. 



RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. Buteo lineatus Jard. This spe- 

 cies was placed in the list of "Summer Visitants" instead of 



* See also American Naturalist, October, 1869. 



