198 Bird Studies. 



We have no very adequate account of the breeding of these birds. Mr. 

 Charles J. Pennock found a pair nesting in trees near St. Mark's, in Florida, 

 early in April. They had laid but one egg, which he secured. It is about 

 two inches and three twentieths long and an inch and three fifths in its 

 smaller diameter. It is bluish white in color, speckled and marked on the 

 laro-er end with reddish brown for about one fourth of its surface. A few 



o 



finer spots are irregularly dispersed over the rest of the egg to its smaller end. 

 A nest which I found near Tarpon Springs was in the edge of a ham- 

 mock in a gum tree about forty feet from the ground. This nest was not 

 completed, as the birds were procured for study, and are now in the Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, at Cambridge, Massachusetts. 



The Broad-winged Hawk is our smallest representative of the group of 



the heavy stout hawks known as the Buteos. The males are about fifteen 



B d ' ed mcnes l n "> an d the females often exceed seventeen inches 



Hawk. in length. 



Buteo latissimus; wiu.). "fhe upper parts are dusky brown, with grayish suffu- 



sions and lighter edges to the feathers. This becomes more apparent on the 

 head and sides of the face, which are streaked with reddish brown. 



The tail above is almost black, and has the tip and two broad bars grayish 

 white. The outer tail feathers have silvery gray under surfaces. The under 

 parts are white, streaked on the throat and heavily barred on the breast and 

 chest so as to almost obscure the ground color, with deep brown, or yellowish 

 buffy brown, varying in individuals. This color becomes more broken on 

 the lower chest, which is distinctly barred ; farther back the white begins to 

 prevail over the brown till the belly and feathers below the tail* are im- 

 maculate. 



Immature birds are much like the adults above, but the tail is grayish 

 brown, and has five obscure darker bars and a narrow white tip. The lower 

 parts are white or light buff streaked v*\\h. brownish black. 



These birds breed throughout the region under consideration from New 

 Brunswick to Texas, extending their migrations to the West Indies and North- 

 ern South America. They nest in trees from twenty to fifty feet from the 

 ground, and lay from two to four eggs. These are about an inch and nine 

 tenths long, and nearly one inch and three fifths in their other diameter. 

 They vary much in appearance, being white or buff in ground color and 

 marked with spots of varying degrees, and shades of brown. 



