298 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 



When one ascends to the nest, which, by the way, is not always an 

 easy matter, as our Beech-trees are not only very smooth, but frequently 

 without any boughs to a considerable distance from the ground, as well 

 as of rather large size, the female bird, if she happens to be sitting, flies 

 off silently and alights on a neighbouring tree, to wait the result. JBut, 

 should the male, who supplies her with food, and assists in incubation, 

 be there, or make his appearance, he immediately sets up a hue and cry, 

 and plunges towards the assailant with such violence as to astonish him. 

 When, on several occasions, I have had the tree on which the nest was 

 placed cut down, I have observed the same pair, a few days after, build 

 another nest on a tree not far distant from the spot in which the first one 

 had been. 



The mutual attachment of the male and the female continues during 

 life. They usually hunt in pairs during the whole year ; and although 

 they build a new nest every spring, they are fond of resorting to the same 

 parts of the woods for that purpose. I knew the pair represented in the 

 Plate for three years, and saw their nest each spring placed within a few 

 hundred yards of the spot in which that of the preceding year was. 



The young remain in the nest until fully fledged, and are fed by the 

 parents for several weeks after they have taken to wing, but leave them 

 and begin to shift for themselves in about a month, when they disperse 

 and hunt separately until the approach of the succeeding spring, at which 

 time they pair. The young birds acquire the rusty reddish colour of the 

 feathers on the breast and shoulders before they leave the nest. It deepens 

 gradually at the approach of autumn, and by the first spring they com- 

 pletely resemble the old birds. Only one brood is raised each season. 

 Scarcely any difference of size exists between the sexes, the female being 

 merely a little stouter. 



This Hawk seldom attacks any kind of poultry, and yet frequently 

 pounces on Partridges, Doves, or Wild Pigeons, as well as Red- winged 

 Starlings, and now and then very young rabbits. On one or two occa- 

 sions, I have seen them make their appearance at the report of my gun, 

 and try to rob me of some Blue-winged Teals shot in small ponds. I have 

 never seen them chase any other small birds than those mentioned, or 

 quadrupeds of smaller size than the Cotton Rat ; nor am I aware of their 

 eating frogs, which are the common food of the Winter Falcon, an ac- 

 count of which you will find, kind reader, in another part of this the first 

 volume of my Biography of the Birds found in the ITnited States of 

 America. 



