Plate XLIX. 



Fig. 3. BUTEO UNEATUS-Red-Shouldered Hawk. 



The Red-shouldered Hawk, although throughout the year a common resident of the State, is more 

 plentiful in winter than in summer. Its distribution during the nesting season is irregular. About 

 Circleville, the Red-tailed Hawk seems to take its place, and in some sections where it is plentiful during 

 the nesting season, I am informed, the Red-tailed Hawk is uncommon. Dr. J. M. Wheaton, in his re- 

 port upon the ornithology of Ohio, states that the two species mentioned seem complementary to each 

 other. 



The nest is constructed in March or the first part of April. But one brood is reared by a single 

 pair during the season. 



LOCALITY: 



The nest is placed in a tall tree; usually in a retired wood, near low, swampy ground. 



POSITION : 



A perpendicular or horizontal fork is chosen for the site, at a distance of fifty feet or more from the 

 ground. Occasionally, a nest is found much lower; but, as a rule, they are high up in the largest trees. 



MATERIALS: 



The nest is composed principally of coarse sticks, arranged into a strong, round platform, slightly 

 concave on top. In the concavity are usually placed moss, feathers, strips of bark, corn-husks, or other 

 soft materials, which serve as a lining. The depth of a nest used for the first time is about four inches; 

 the diameter, about two feet. The diameter of the cavity can not be measured, as it has no well-defined 

 outline. 



EGGS: 



Three or four eggs generally constitute a set. The shell is granular; and varies in ground-color 

 from white, generally soiled, to quite a dark shade of yellowish-brown. Some eggs are entirely or almost 

 unmarked; others are thickly blotched, spotted, and speckled with various shades of brown. One egg 

 before me is blotched so thickly, about the basal half, that a mass of almost solid color is formed, which 

 covers a third of the shell ; the remaining two-thirds is also heavily marked, but patches of ground-color 

 are here and there plainly visible between the blotches and spots. Another egg is spotted pretty regu- 

 larly over the entire shell, with marks about the size of a pin's head. Another egg has fifteen good 

 sized circular blotches, and about as many more which are two or three times as long as wide, and much 

 less distinct — the latter have their greatest length parallel with the long-diameter of the egg, and be- 

 tween these are innumerable dots and speckles. Another has fifteen to twenty marks, composed of 



175 



