BIRDS OF NEW YORK 



85 



a lofty perch it is less often observed seated upon dead tree-tops and stubs 

 in the open, or on the towering hillside. In the breeding season it is per- 

 haps our noisiest hawk, its oft-repeated cry coming many times each day 

 from the vicinity of the nesting site. The nest is a bulky structure mostly 

 made of sticks and placed in the 

 fork of a lofty tree, an elm, birch, 

 maple, black cherry or beech being 

 commonly selected, rarely an ever- 

 green. The eggs are from 3 to 5 

 in number, dingy white or bluish 

 white in color, irregularly and usu- 

 ally rather heavily spotted and 

 blotched with dark brown and yel- 

 lowish brown and obscure shell 

 markings. The nest is often built 

 or repaired as early as the middle 

 of March but the eggs are laid from 

 April I to May 10 in this State. 

 The period of incubation is about 4 

 weeks, and the young remain in the 

 nest from 4 to 6 weeks. Like other 

 hawks this species is much attached 

 to its home, and the same nest or 

 at least the same locality is occupied 

 as long as either of the pair survives. „ . . , „ , . ,„ . , ,, 



o ■»■ bwainson hawk. Buteo swainsoni (Bonaparte). From- 



specimen in Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. J nat. size 



Buteo swainsoni Bonaparte 



Swainson Hawk 



Buteo swainsoni Bonaparte. Geol. & Comp. List. 1838. 3 



A. O. U. Check List. Ed. 3. igio. p. 159. No. 342 



Distinctive marks. Only j outer quills e7narginate; tail grayish brown, 

 often tinged with hoary, with about 9 or 10 narrow dusky bands; variable 



