30 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



appropriate. From its abundance, wide distribution and strik- 

 ing appearance it is probably the best known of all the larger 

 hawks. It is about two feet long. The body is large and 

 muscular. Its bill is blackish brown, much decurved and 

 well adapted to tearing its food into shreds ; cere, light yellow ; 

 iris, yellow; general color of upper parts of the body, in- 

 cluding the head and a band below the throat, dark brown, 

 variegated with gray ; primaries, dark brown ; tail fan-shaped, 

 and a rich reddish chestnut with a broad terminal bar of 

 blackish brown and white tips; throat, creamy white with 

 brownish streaks ; breast, buffy-white with heavy brownish 

 streaks on upper part, and few or none on the lower part; 

 belly, silvery white; legs and feet, yellow; claws, black, much 

 decurved and well adapted to seizing and holding its food. 

 Male and female are alike in appearance. 



This hawk is a resident of Eastern North America, west to 

 the Great Plains. It is generally distributed and breeds more 

 or less abundantly in suitable localities in all portions of the 

 United States east of the Mississippi River. North of the 

 United States it is found throughout the southern parts of the 

 Dominion of Canada, ranging from Newfoundland, Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick, through the provinces of Quebec 

 and Ontario, west to Manitoba and the Northwest Territory. 

 It is partial to moderately timbered districts, swampy woods, 

 and the bottom lands of streams. At Buzzard's Roost we 

 have a number of them that may be seen coursing their way 

 up and down Fall Creek and a pair of them nest in the fork of 

 a beech tree in the midst of the woodland. 



It is thought that these hawks mate for life. The nesting 

 site may be found in or near the same place for several years in 

 succession. The nest is usually built in the fork of a tree and 

 from thirty to one hundred feet from the ground, and made of 

 sticks, and lined with small twigs, leaves and sometimes grass. 

 In Birds that Hunt and are Hunted, Miss Blanchan says, 

 "About eighty per cent, of nests found have been in birch 

 trees." This statement must have been based upon observa- 

 tions made in a country where the prevailing trees were birch. 

 Most certainly it would not be justified by observations 

 made in the Middle West, where there are but few birch trees. 



