RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 297 



circles just mentioned, when it often dives and gambols. It is a more 

 general inhabitant of the woods than most of our other species, particularly 

 during the summer, and in autumn and winter; now and then only, in early 

 spring, shewing itself in the open grounds, and about the vicinity of 

 small lakes, for the purpose of securing Jled-winged Starlings and wound- 

 ed Ducks, 



The interior of woods seems, as I have said, the fittest haunts for the 

 Red-shouldered Hawk. He sails through them a few yards above the 

 ground, and suddenly alights on the low branch of a tree, or the top of a 

 dead stump, from which he silently watches, in an erect posture, for the 

 appearance of squirrels, upon which he pounces directly and kills them 

 in an instant, afterwards devouring them on the ground. If accidentally 

 discovered, he essays to remove the squirrel, but finding this difficult, he 

 drags it partly through the air and partly along the ground, to some short 

 distance, until he conceives himself out of sight of the intruder, when he 

 again commences feeding. The eating of a whole squirrel, which this 

 bird often devours at one meal, so gorges it, that I have seen it in this 

 state almost unable to fly, and with such an extraordinary protuberance 

 on its breast as seemed very unnatural, and very injurious to the beauty 

 of form which the bird usually displays. On all occasions, such as I have 

 described, when the bird is so gorged, it is approached with the greatest 

 ease. On the contrary, when it is in want of food, it requires the greatest 

 caution to get within shooting distance of it. 



At the approach of spring, this species begins to pair, and its flight is 

 accompanied with many circhngs and zigzag motions, during which it 

 emits its shrill cries. The male is particularly noisy at this time. He 

 gives chase to aU other Hawks, returns to the branch on which his mate 

 has chanced to perch, and caresses her. This happens about the begin- 

 ning of March. The spot adapted for a nest is already fixed upon, and 

 the fabric is half finished. The top of a tall tree appears to be preferred 

 by this Hawk, as I have found its nest more commonly placed there, not 

 far from the edges of woods bordering plantations. The nest is seated in 

 the forks of a large branch, towards its extremity^ and is as bulky as that 

 of the Common Crow. It is formed externally of dry sticks and Spanish 

 moss, and is lined with withered grass and fibrous roots of different sorts, 

 arranged in a circular manner. The female usually lays four eggs, some- 

 times five. They are of a broad oval form, granulated all over, pale blue, 

 faintly blotched with brownislvred at the smaller end. 



