BUTEO BOREALIS : RED-TAILED BUZZARD. 121 



RED-TAILED BUZZARD : HEN HAWK. 



BuTEO BOREALIS Glfl. 



Chars. Adult dark brown above, many feathers with pale or tawny 

 margins, and upper tail-coverts showing much whitish ; below 

 white or reddish-white, with various spots and streaks of different 

 shades of brown, generally forming an irregular zone on the abdo- 

 men ; tail above bright chestnut red, with subterminal black zone 

 and narrow whitish tip, below pearly gray ; wing-coverts dark. 

 Young with the tail grayish-brown closely barred with darker, the 

 upper parts with tawny streaking, the under parts white with dark 

 markings, usually wanting on the breast. The young are a long 

 time in acquiring the full plumage. They are long full grown before 

 the red of the tail appears, and this is usually in advance of the 

 fulvous of the under parts that the old birds display. I have seen 

 specimens with nearly perfect red tail, yet showing pure white 

 on the breast and the same elsewhere underneath, though marked 

 with the usual dark-brown spots and streaks. A large stoutly- 

 built hawk ; female 23.00 ; wing, 15.50 ; extent, 50.00 or more ; 

 tail 8.50 ; male 20.00 ; wing, 14.00 ; tail 7.00. Fouro\A^x primaries 

 emarginate on inner webs ; tarsus short, stout, extensively 

 feathered above. 



This is the largest and most powerful of the Buzzard 

 Hawks, and only exceeded in these respects by the 

 Gyrfalcons. It is a permanent resident, and one gener- 

 ally distributed. You may see the great bird perched 

 erect and watchful, on some lone tree that gives command 

 of a wide horizon, no less mistrustful of the approach of 

 man than confident of its own ability to capture the 

 quarry its keen eye is so eager to descry ; or you may 

 notice it again, single or two together, circling high 

 over head in graceful gyration with motionless wings, 

 ever and again sending forth its shrill note of defiance. 

 Still it is on the whole of sluggish and heavy disposition, 



