BROAD-WINGED HAWK. 205 



that each hawk captured 200 grasshoppers a day, and that there 

 were 200 hawks, the daily catch would thus be 40,000 grasshoppers, 

 At this rate these hawks would destroy 280,000 grasshoppers in a 

 week, or 1,200,000 in a month." And yet this is one of the species 

 for whose destruction a bounty has recently been offered ! 



BUTEO LATISSIMUS (WiLS.). 

 147. Broad-winged Hawk. (343) 



Three outer primaries emarginate on inner web; above, umber-brown, the 

 feathers with paler, or even with fulvous or ashy-white edging, those of the 

 hind head and nape cottony-white at base; quills, blackish, most of the inner 

 webs white, barred with dusky ; tail, with three broad dark zones alternating 

 with narrow white ones, and white tipped ; conspicuous dark maxillary patches ; 

 under parts, white or tawny, variously streaked, spotted or barred with rusty 

 or rufous, this color usually predominating in adult birds, when the white 

 chiefly appears as oval or circular spots 011 each feather ; throat, generally 

 whiter than elsewhere, narrowly dark -lined. In the young the upper parts are 

 duller brown, varied with white; the under parts, tawny-whitish, with linear 

 and oblong dark spots , the tail, grayish-brown, with numerous dark bars. 

 Female, 18: wing, 11; tail, 7. Male, less. 



HAB. Eastern North America, from New Brunswick and the Saskatchewan 

 region to Texas and Mexico, and thence southward to Central America, northern 

 South America and the West Indies. 



Nest, in a tree, built of sticks and twigs, lined with grass and leaves. 



Eggs, two or three, grayish-white, marked with spots and blotches of umber- 

 brown. 



This species was first described by Wilson, who met with two 

 individuals in the woods near the Schuykill, but does not appear to 

 have seen it again. 



In Southern Ontario the Broad- winged Hawk is often very com- 

 mon in the spring. Toward the end of April, or early in May, should 

 the weather be clear, great numbers are seen soaring at a consider- 

 able height, and moving in circles toward the North- West. 



About the same time, singly or in pairs, it may be met with in 

 the woods, usually sitting quietly on the lower branch of a tree near 

 some wet place watching for frogs. A few pairs remain during 

 summer, but the greater number pass on to the North- West, and in 

 winter none have been observed. 



Late in April, or early in May, the Broad-winged Hawk has been 

 reported at Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton and London. It does not go< 



