276 



OHIO EXPERIMENT STATION. 



the total number of each observed in 1892 may be taken as a fair criterion. These 

 figures are: Red-shouldered Hawk, 87; Sparrow Hawk, 37; Red-tailed Hawk, 27. 



The Red-shouldered Hawk prefers the wooded bottom-lands ; and while there is 

 scarcely a tract of lowland woods of any considerable size which is not inhabited by 

 one or even two pairs of Buteo lineatus, yet during the spring and summer it remains 

 so closely within its haunt?, that were these places not visited, the species might very 

 readily be considered much less abundant than is really the case. In parts of the 

 County where no bottom-lands exist, the Red-shouldered Hawk is apparently 

 less numerous, though by no means rare. 



The eggs, according to the writer's experience, are in this locality somewhat more 

 commonly four than three in number. They are deposited generally between the 

 fifth and the twentieth of April, the variation in different seasons being apparently not 

 dependent upon the mildness or severity of the weather. Young in the nest have 

 been observed as early as May 5. Eggs unmarked, or nearly so, occasionally occur y 

 although these are somewhat the exception. Eggs in different stages of incubation are 

 not infrequently found in the same nest. 



This species, like the Red-tailed Hawk, manifests little inclination to defend its 

 nest against a human intruder, but usually contents itself with retreating into the 

 woods, or at most soaring about high overhead. In fact the writer has record of but 

 a single instance where on the part of the parent bird any fierceness was exhibited.. 

 On this occasion, the female, after being driven from the nest only when the latter was 

 nearly reached in climbing, persisted in making repeated and most vicious swoops at 

 the disturber of her peace, until forced to desist by the approach below of someone 

 with a gun. This nest contained one young bird just hatched, together with three 

 eggs in which incubation was nearly completed. Under ordinary circumstances the 

 female leaves the nest while the tree is being approached, but sometimes, especially if 

 incubation be advanced, she is with considerable difficulty dislodged. 



Of the nest of the Red-shouldered Hawk, the dimensions given by Major Chas, 

 E. Bendire 1 are, as in the case of the preceding species, somewhat too small, unless 

 these Ohio nests are to be considered exceptional. The measurements of ten nests 

 are as follows : 



From a comparison of the above measurements with those of the nest of BtHeo 

 borealis it will be seen that while the nest of the latter is considerably greater in 

 diameter, it is very little higher than the nest of B. lineatus, but has nevertheless a 



1 Life Histories of North American Birds I, 1892, p. 221. 



