OF EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA, 261 



passes from a white to a dingy rust-colored drab. The 

 markings are minute in size, few in number, of a light 

 color, and so arranged, as to cause the egg to appear a nearly 

 homogeneous brownish-white. In some, the markings 

 appear in numerous fine granulations of a uniform brownish 

 color, which are pretty uniformly distributed over the entire 

 egg-surface, through which the characteristic ground-color 

 can only be detected by a magnify ing-glass. And, again, 

 the ground is completely obscured by deep, dark purplish- 

 brown blotches, which are large and confluent. The eggs 

 vary in size, even in the same nest-full. The largest meas- 

 ures 2.52 by i. 88 inches, and the smallest 2.10 by 1.72 

 inches. 



According to Dr. Coues, the young are a long w T hile in 

 acquiring the characteristic adult plumage. They attain 

 their full size before the red of the tail appears, which is 

 ordinarily assumed before the fulvous of the inferior parts 

 of the mature bird manifests itself. The above writer has 

 seen specimens with pure white breasts and marked with 

 the ordinary dark-brown streaks and spots, which had nearly 

 perfect red tails. 



Buteo lineatus, (GM.) yard, 



The Red-shouldered Buzzard is pretty widely distributed. 

 It is found in greater or less abundance from Florida to 

 Nova Scotia. In the former State, it is the most abundant 

 of its family. It has been found in various portions of Texas, 

 where it breeds in the thickly-wooded river-bottoms. It 

 breeds plentifully in Florida, and thence northward to 

 Northern Vermont, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. In 

 Eastern Maine, it is probably a resident species. In the 

 western part of the State, Mr. Verrill found it breeding, 

 though not very common. In Eastern Massachusetts, it is 

 a not uncommon permanent resident, but more plentiful in 

 the fall, from the addition of northern migrants. In Wes- 

 tern Massachusetts, it is equally abundant. It has not been 



