172 NESTS AND EGGS OP 



335. Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi (Aud.) [434] 



Harris's Hawk. 



Hab. Southern border of the United States; Mississippi, Texas, Arizona, southward to Panama. 



This bird is an inhabitant of the warmer parts of America, extending 

 its range over our Mexican border. In Texas it is common, especially 

 about the mouth of the Rio Grande. Its habits resemble those of the 

 Caracara Eagle, but it is not so active, and the nests are hardly distin- 

 guishable in situation and construction. It is said, by some observers, 

 to subsist entirely on carrion, and may be seen in company with the 

 Turkey Buzzard, Black Vulture and Caracara Eagle. 



Mr. Sennett found this species to be the most abundant of any 

 other of the family on the Lower Rio Grande in Texas. In their 

 crops he found mice, lizards, birds and often the Mexican striped 

 gopher, indicating that they were active hunters instead of sluggish 

 birds. 



The eggs are white, with a yellowish tinge, sometimes marked 

 with light dashes of yellowish- brown and dottings of purplish drab ; 

 commonly two or three in number, rarely four. 



Four sets of these eggs are in the cabinet of Mr. J. Parker Norris, 

 and show considerable variation in size and shape. One set of three 

 taken near Corpus Christi, Texas, May 10, 1886, are entirely dull white ; 

 sizes, 2.19 X 1. 61, 2.13 X 1.63, 2.14 X 1,58 ; another of two eggs taken in 

 Cameron county, Texas, May 25, 1886, measure 2.08x1.65, 2.19 x 1.71 ; 

 a set of three eggs from the same place, collected April 25, measure 

 2.00X 1.65, 2.06 X 1.65, 2.13 X 1.69 ; one of the eggs of this set has a few 

 faint cinnamon spots ; the fourth set taken in Cameron county, Texas, 

 May 3, 1886 ; two of these are faintly marked with lavender, but the 

 third is distinctly spotted at the large end with cinnamon ; sizes, 2.14 

 XI.65, 1.94x1.61, 1.99x1.57. 



[336.1 Buteo buteo (Linn.) [435.] 



European Buzzard. 



Hab. Northern portions of the Eastern Hemisphere. Accidental in Michigan? 



The older ornithologists were doubtless mistaken in the identifica- 

 tion of the specimens obtained in this country, which they described 

 and figured as Buteo vulgaris of Europe. 



This Hawk has been entirely excluded from our fauna by more 

 recent authorities, and it is admitted only on the grounds of a 

 single specimen taken near Paw Paw, Michigan, by J. D. Allen, and 

 received in the skin by Mr. C. J. Maynard in the autumn of 1873. The 

 bird is quite common in England, frequenting the more cultivated por- 

 tions, as well as the very wildest parts of Scotland and tracts of Alpine 



