22 



THE OOLOGIST 



The Red-shouldered Hawk of Cayuga 

 County, N. Y. 



In this locality of Cayuga County, 

 New York, especially around the City 

 of Auburn, the Red-shouldered Hawk 

 is the predominating "Buteo". There 

 are no woodlands as a rule large, or 

 wild enough for the Redtail, Sharp- 

 shinned, or Broadwinged to breed in, 

 although the latter are common mi- 

 grants. However, there are exceptions 

 to all rules. In the Southern part of 

 our country we have a number of 

 heavily wooded hillsides, and here the 

 Redtail is found breeding to some ex- 

 tent; also I have found the wild little 

 Sharpshinned Hawk breeding in this 

 locality, although very rare. I have 

 known of no instances of the Broad- 

 winged breeding. The Cooper's Hawk 

 is a fairly common breeder with us 

 and one can usually collect several 

 sets of this species in the month of 

 May. 



However, coming back to my topic, 

 the Red Shouldered Hawk, I would 

 say that this bird is generally found 

 breeding very commonly in any siz- 

 able woods, whether swampy or of a 

 highland nature. In the swamps the 

 bird invariably picks out the maple 

 as a nesting place, sometimes other 

 trees are used but very seldom. On 

 the highland woods the beech is the 

 favorite tree, and I think that the lat- 

 ter is the common site for the Red 

 Shouldered Hawk. Out of sixty-nine 

 habited nests examined, thirty-eight 

 were in beech trees, seventeen in 

 maple, basswood, and elm and contain- 

 ed three each, birch and sycamore, two 

 each and evergreen, ash, iron wood 

 and chestnut, one each. 



Occasionally this bird stays over 

 winter with us. A case of this kind 

 is seldom, and occurs no more than in 

 the case of a Robin staying over, like 

 the latter the Hawks confine them- 

 selves generally to the densest 



swamps. In the case of an early 

 spring, and an unusually mild winter, 

 in the latter part of February a few 

 Hawks appear from the South. This 

 is an extreme case. Usually the Red 

 Shouldered Hawk begins to appear 

 from its winter home from the middle 

 of March on to April when all of its 

 kind should be with us. 



From now on to about April 12th is 

 the nest building time. The earliest 

 date for a set of eggs in this locality 

 to my knowledge is April 8th and I 

 have taken eggs not far advanced in 

 incubation as late as May 17th. These 

 are extreme cases. The time for col- 

 lecting full sets of eggs of this spe- 

 cies, is between the 20th and 25th of 

 April. After breeding and living with 

 us during the spring, summer and part 

 of the fall months, the Hawks migrate 

 to their winter homes around Octobei 

 15th. 



As to the number of eggs layed by 

 the Red Shoulder, I would say that I 

 think three is the average number in 

 a set. Out of sixty-nine nests exam- 

 ined, thirty-seven contained three 

 eggs, nineteen contained four, thir- 

 teen contained two. I have never 

 taken a set of five eggs, but I know of 

 two sets of that number taken in this 

 county in one season. 



The nest of the Red Shouldered 

 Hawk is very easy to locate for a per- 

 son knowing the country in which they 

 breed and to a person that has in the 

 past studied the birds to some etxent. 

 Instances are known in this country 

 that this species has used the same 

 nest for a period between twenty and 

 thirty years. This is not saying that 

 the same pair of birds used the nest, 

 but the same pair of birds will invar- 

 iably come back to their home nest 

 if the latter is not destroyed or the 

 female bird killed. In taking sets of 

 eggs from year to year thus forming 

 a series, a person can tell by the type 



