THE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 37 



smaller than specimens collected in Xew England. These 

 eggs must have been laid by the 25th of March. In New 

 England, they are seldom laid before the last week in April 

 to the first week in May. 



BUTEO LINE ATUS. — Jardine. 



The Eed-shouldered Hawk. 



Fulco linealus and hyemalis, Gm. Syst. Nat., I. 268, 274 (1788). 

 Fcdco buieoides, Nuttall. Man., I. 100 (1st edition, 1832). 



Description. 



Adult. — Wing coverts, from its flexure to the body, fine bright rufous ; Dreasi 

 and other lower parts of the body paler orange rufous, nian\- feathers with transverse 

 bars and spots of white, which predominate on the abdomen and under tail coverts; 

 entire upper parts brown; on tlie hegid mixed with rufous, and with white spots on 

 the wing coverts and shorter quills and rump ; quills brownish-black, with white spots 

 on their outer webs, and with bars of a ligiiter shade of brown and of white on 

 their inner webs; tail brownish-black, with about live transverse bands of white, 

 and tipped with white. 



Young. — Entire upper parts j-ellowish-white, with longitudinal stripes and 

 oblong spots of dark-brown; throat dark brown; upper parts lighter ashy-brown, 

 with many partially concealed spots and bars of white; quills dark-brown, with 

 wide transverse bars of rutbus and white on both webs; tail ashy-brown, with 

 numerous bauds of pale-brownish and rufous white; tail beneatli silvery-white; 

 bill light-blue at the base, bluish-black at the tip; cere, basal margin of the bill, 

 edges of the eyelids and the feet, bright-yellow; iris hazel. 



Total length, female, twenty-one to twenty-three inches; wing, fourteen; tail, 

 nine inches. Male, eighteen to twenty inches; wing, twelve; tail, eight inches. 



This bird is a rather common resident of all New Eng- 

 land throughout the year. Its habits are so nearly like 

 those of the preceding, that I can add nothing to that I 

 have already written. 



Tlie best account of the bird's habits in the breeding 

 season, that I remember, is given by Audubon. It is as 

 follows : — 



" This bird is one of the most noisy of its genus, during spring 

 especially, when it would be difficult to ajiproach the skirts of woods 

 bordering a large plantation without hearing its discordant shrill 

 notes, — ka-hee, ka-hee, — as it is seen .^ailing in rapid circles at a 

 7cry great elevation. Its ordinary flight is even and protracted, 



