244 THE WiILson BULLETIN—Nos. 76-77. 
a rather open piece of woods of some extent, and near the hilly 
bank of a small stream. One nest in Putnam Co., West Vir- 
ginia was in a tall hickory (Morgan ms.) ; and another near 
Blacksburg, Montgomery Co., Virginia, was in an enormuos 
white oak, fully seventy feet up, the main trunk about five feet 
in diameter (Smythe Jr., ms.). Virginia and North Carolina 
nests have usually been found in pine, maple, oak, chestnut, 
tulip poplar and magnolia; and Florida birds seem to prefer 
pine with an occasional magnolia. In the middle west or Great 
Lakes States, it seems to be uncommon enough as a breeder 
to have developed no marked preference; but in Minnesota, 
Preston found it in the basswood, elm, oak, and larch. Cant- 
well says small red oaks are favorites and others have found 
it in oaks, poplar, beech, maple, pine and walnut, with the oaks 
and basswood the favorites. Dresser states that it nests high 
up in cottonwoods almost inaccessible, on the Colorado in 
Texas, and at Colmesneil, Tyler Co., Tex., it seems partial to 
large red oaks and as a rule doesn’t place the nest very high 
up, one nest however, was sixty-five feet up in a pine (Pope 
ms. ). 
On St. Vincent, West Indies, Lister says of Buteo platpyerus 
antillarum, that its nest is often built in a bread-fruit tree ; and 
Clark states that it is usually placed in a large tree, often a 
bread-fruit or cabbage palm. While on Grenada Island, Wells 
has found its nest on the fronds of the palmetto, and on large 
trees like the silk-cotton (Ceibra). Verrill states that B. p. 
rivieirti of Dominica builds a nest of sticks, grass and trash in 
high trees or on cliffs. 
The nest is usually placed in the many-forked crotch of the 
main stem, which not only forms a secure base but also often 
the substantial supporting timbers of the rudely constructed 
home. Sometimes it is placed on several small branches 
against the trunk, an old nest of some sort furnishing the 
foundations usually. Rarely is it found well out on a forked 
branch away from the main bole. Preston mentions one in a 
drooping branch of an elm on a steep bluff, 30 feet above 
the Pelican river, Minn., which was visited at risk of life and 
