36 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



wing primaries nearly black ; tail, dark rufous with broad black 

 band near the end and outer feathers and tips white ; throat and 

 upper neck on sides, white with two black bands, one in front 

 and one in rear of the eyes ; below varying from white to deep 

 rufous, with or without spots ; legs and feet long, strong and 

 of grayish color ; claws, black. The adult female in appearance 

 is like the male, except that the back, wing and tail coverts 

 are barred with black, and the hinder parts are more or less 

 heavily streaked with dark ochraceous buff. 



The range of this hawk extends over nearly the entire 

 North American continent. It has been identified as far north 

 as the Great Slave Lake, in north latitude sixty-two degrees. 

 It is known to be a summer resident of Newfoundland, Nova 

 Scotia and New Brunswick and the more southern portions 

 of the Dominion of Canada. In Indiana they are not numerous 

 in the winter. I have found them at Buzzard's Roost the last 

 of January. As a rule they winter from New York and In- 

 diana southward to northern South America. They breed from 

 Florida and the Gulf Coast to the shores of the Hudson Bay. 

 Pairing time is from February to June, according to latitude. 

 It is believed that they remain mated for life. 



In the United States nidification begins from the middle 

 of April to the middle of May. The usual nesting site is in a 

 natural or artificial hole in a tree. Frequently they are found 

 in the deserted nesting hole of a woodpecker. A pair of them 

 have nested at Somerleaze for many years in a cavity near the 

 top of a very high sugar maple tree and this has afforded me a 

 good opportunity to study their habits. From three to seven 

 eggs constitute a clutch. In his Life Histories of North Amer- 

 ican Birds, Major Bendire says: "The ground color of these 

 eggs ranges from a pure clear white in a few instances to pale 

 buff or cream color in the majority of cases, and to a bright 

 cinnamon rufous in a few others. They are spotted, blotched, 

 marbled and sprinkled with different shades of walnut brown, 

 chestnut, cinnamon rufous and ochraceous in various pat- 

 terns." Incubation lasts about three weeks and both birds as- 

 sist in it. A watchful care is kept over the nest and young. I 

 have noticed that during this time they permit no other birds 

 to come near their nesting tree. Once, when tramping, I dis- 



