84 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



smaller twigs and a few leaves. Fourteen eggs in my col- 

 lection, from different parts of New England, exhibit but 

 slight variations; they are of a bluish-white color, and 

 covered at the larger end with spots and blotches of 

 chocolate-brown : in some specimens these blotches are con- 

 fluent, making a ring near the large end ; ^ others are 

 covered nearly over their entire surface with these markings. 

 Tlie form of the egg is nearly spherical ; the length varying 

 from 1.50 inch to 1.23 inch, and the breadth from 1.24 

 inch to 1.06 inch. Average dimensions about 1.40 inch by 

 1.20 inch. I have found the eggs as early as the 10th of 

 May ; but usually they are not laid before the 20th, in the 

 latitude of Massachusetts. The same nest is occupied by 

 the parent birds for several years, and the female is a per- 

 sistent layer. A case came to my knowledge in the spring 

 of 1864, when the nest was robbed three times : fourteen 

 eggs were removed ; and, if the female had not been killed 

 when the last eggs were taken, she would probably have 

 laid another litter, as there were several found in her 

 nearly formed. Both sexes, as with nearly all the other 

 birds of prey, incubate 



Sub-Family Buteonin^. — Tlie Buzzard-HcmJcs. 



General form heavy; flight vigorous and long continued, but not so rapid as in 

 the preceding sub-families. Subsist mainly on small quadrupeds and reptiles. 



BUTEO, CuviER. 



Buteo, CcviER, Regne Animal, I. 323 (1817). 



Bill short, wide at base; edges of upper mandible lobed; nostrils large, ovate, 

 wings long, wide, fourth and fifth quills usually longest ; tail moderate, rather wide ; 

 tarsi moderate, robust, with transverse scales before and behind, laterally with small 

 circular and hexagonal scales ; toes moderate, or rather short ; claws strong. Con- 

 tains about thirty species, inhabiting all countries. 



1 The specimen, fig. 3, plate L, is marked with a ring of confluent blotches at thn 

 smaller end, a peculiarity rarely met with. 



