Vol. III. JULY, 1897. No. III. 



NESTING HABITS OF KRIDER'S HAWK. 



BY R. M. ANDERSON. 



THE Krider's Hawk ( Biiteo horealis kriderii) is a geographical variety 

 of the Red-tailed Hawk and is the lightest in color of the five sub-divisions 

 of that species known to inhabit North America, occuring in the region from 

 the Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi River, though very seldom found east 

 of the Mississippi. This species is described in Ridgway's Manual of North 

 American Birds as "lighter colored than the Red- tail, with much white on 

 xipper parts, tail pale rufous (usually without the dusky sub- terminal bar), the 

 lo\\ er parts entirely pure white or pail buffy only on thighs etc. , with little if 

 any spotting on belly. Eggs 2.31 x 1.80. Habitation, Great Plains, Minnesota 

 to Texas ; east irregularly or casually to Iowa and Northern Illinois." 



The first record of this species on the Atlantic coast was a specimen taken 

 by W. W. Worthington at Supelo Island, Ga., February 16, 1888, identified by 

 Wm. Brewster, (Auk, January, '89). In Southern Minnesota Mr. P. B. 

 Peabody found several nests of the species during the spring of 1894, (Auk, 

 January, '95). My first meeting with Krider's Hawk was on the 14th day of 

 May, 1895, when I went out to visit an old nest which had been known to me 

 for about three years and had been occupied by a pair of Swainson's Hawks 

 the previous year. As I came near the tree, a large Hawk flew silently off the 

 nest and away. She perched on a tree at some distance and occasionally 

 uttered a scream as I was examining the nest, but when I started to climb 

 down, the male Hawk also appeared on the scene, and while he perched on a 

 tree some distance away, the female Hawk circled over my head within easy 

 gun range, screaming angrily, then lit in a tree only two or three rods from the 

 nest and remained there until I had reached terra firma, when she circled once 

 around the tree and alighted again in the same place, only to drop at the report 

 of the double-barrel. 



For some time I thought my specimen to be only a light phase of the 

 comnxon Red- tail, but after an inspection of a large series of Hawks at the 

 Smithsonian Institution and a conversation with Mr. Robert Ridgway, I con- 

 cluded that the bird was none other than Krider's Hawk. I afterward sent it 

 to the Smith.sonian where the conclusion was verified, the bird being identified 

 as Biiteu hoi'ealis kriderii ; — now at the Smithsonian Institution, accession 

 ii0869. This Hawk was much lighter than a Red-tail in my possession, the 

 whole under parts being whitish with but a few brown streaks on belly, head 

 streaked with dull light-brown and white, cheeks whitish, back and wings 

 cttn.siderably mottled with pale and dark-brown and whitish. The tail was 

 pale reddish lirown. fading to a buff or creamy white near base ; upper tail 



