THE RED-TAILED HAWK. 97 



less sparingly marked with a muddy-brown, the latter color- 

 ing, in the case of the otherwise clear egg, seeming very 

 like slight smirchings of dirt. On the whole, they are rather 

 pretty. Another nest, taken a few days later, contained two 

 eggs not quite so round, and having the dark-brown markings 

 heavier and more numerous. The nest was similarly placed. 

 In the latter part of March, of 1874, a nest was found in the 

 top of a tall elm tree in the woods near Knowlesville. Two 

 young men undertook to capture the Hawk. The one fired 

 at the nest, and, holding his piece rather carelessly, found it 

 sticking in the mud behind him; the other succeeded in 

 taking the female bird on the wing as she left her eyrie. 

 The male now sat on the eggs for a time, but was too 

 wary to allow an approach within gun-shot, and left after a 

 few days. In all of the above cases the birds seem to have 

 raised their young in the same locality for a series of years. 



The note of the Red-tailed Hawk, most commonly heard, 

 as he sails high in the air, in the bright days of summer, and 

 expressed, perhaps, by the syllables Kshee-o, Kshee-o, well 

 drawn out, is rather harsh and squealing, but when uttered 

 while the female cuts her grand circles above the nest, as it 

 is being disturbed, it is even pathetic. 



This bird may be found in Western New York throughout 

 the yeaV; and from the last of February or the first of 

 March till late in autumn, it is our most common Hawk. 

 Its habitat is all North America, and even Mexico and 

 some of the West India Islands. 



Similar in form to the above, but a little larger, and dis- 

 tinguishable by the "tarsus feathered in front for more 

 than half its length," and by the four outer quills " incised 

 on the inner webs," is that rare southern species Harlan's 

 Hawk (Bueto harlani). It is, however, a little larger, and 

 appears darker. " General colors throughout, dark, sooty - 

 7 



