teats 
Burns—Own BrROAD-WINGED HAWK. 249 
Raptorics should require protection from predatory animals. 
It is more likely the lingering vestige of the instinct that led 
its reptilian ancestors to employ decaying vegetation to de- 
velop the embryo. No doubt the moist tender leaf imparts 
more or less heat to the eggs, and as the habit is not abandoned 
until after the brood is able to clamber to the side of the nest, 
it serves the treble purpose: first a soft and warm bed for the 
callow young. and as the decaying refuse accumulate and the 
large tree ants, wood lice and ticks multiply, the successive 
layers become a matter of sanitation and protection. Almost 
all or our nest building Raptores are more or less addicted to 
this habit, none to the extent of this member, however. It 
seems to have an overpowering desire to bear something green 
to the nest after the real drudgery of construction is past. The 
references following the species below, give a more or less de- 
tailed account of green leaves in the nest, though seldom in 
the quantity and certainly not so consistently as in the instance 
of Buteo platypterus. 
Ictinia mississippiensis Mississippi Kite, Goss, Bendire’s Life 
Hist. N. A. Bds., 1892, 177; Singley, Davies’ Nests, and Eggs, N. A. 
Bds., 3rd ed., 1889, 166; Short, Oologist, XXI, 1904, 37-39; Peabody, 
O. and O., XVII, 1892, 170. 
Accipiter velox Sharp-shinned Hawk, Fisher, Hawks, and Owls 
U. S., 1892, 34. 
Astus atricapillus Goshawk, Wifrig, Auk, XXIII, 1906, 314; Ma- 
coun, Cat. Can. Bds., II, 1908, 229. 
Parabuteo unicinctus Harris’s Hawk, Goss, Bendire’s Life Hist., 
235. 
Buteo buteo Wuropean Buzzord, Seebohm, British Birds, p. 205. 
Buteo borealis borealis, Red-tailed Hawk, Burtch, Oologist, XXI, 
1904, pp. 42-48; Sharp, J/bid. XXII, 1905, 43-44. 
Buteo borealis calurus Western Red-tail, Dunn, Oologist, XIII, 
1906, 73. 
Buteo lineatus lineatus, Red-shouldered Hawk, Burtch, Oologist, 
XXI 1904, 42-43; Wood, /bid. XXIII, 1896, 5; Brooks, Jbid. 21- 
22. Wisher, Hawks and Owls U. S. 65. 
Buteo lineatus -alleni Florida Red-shouldered Hawk, Singley, 
Davies’ Nests and Hggs, 1889, 175. 
Buteo VUineatus elegans Red-bellied Hawk, Bendire, Life Hist. N. 
