178 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



343. Buteo latissimus (Wils.) [443.] 



Broad-winged Hawk. 



Hab. Eastern North America, from New Brunswick and the Saskatchewan country south to Texas, 

 Mexico, Central America, northern portion of South America and West Indies. 



The Broad-winged Hawk is of general distribution in eastern 

 North America. It makes its summer home in the solitudes of dense 

 woodlands, usually in the vicinity of a marsh, lake or river. The bird is 

 of an unsuspicious and spiritless character, frequently permitting the 

 intruder to approach within a few yards of it without exhibiting the 

 least alarm. When the nest is approached this Hawk is said to utter a 

 piercing cry of alarm. Its food consists of squirrels, weasels, frogs, mice 

 and small birds. Not always are the highest trees selected as nesting 

 sites ; in some sections the crotches and branches of trees, ten to forty feet 

 from the ground, are usually chosen, while in other regions the tallest 

 oak and hickor}- trees, sixty to eighty feet from the ground, are pre- 

 ferred. Abandoned crows' nests are likewise made use of by this 

 species.* The nests are coarsely constructed of sticks, lined with 

 fibrous roots, bark strips, moss or feathers. 



The eggs of the Broad-winged Hawk are usually deposited in 

 May. In the forests of the Red River of the North in Minnesota, Mr. 

 J. W. Preston found the eggs in the latter half of May ; they have been 

 taken near St. John, New Brunswick, as late as June 23 ; in Monroe 

 county, Pennsylvania, June 6 ; and Northhampton county, Pennsyl- 

 vania, May 17 and 18; near Framingham, Massachusetts, ilay 25; in 

 lyafayette county, Mississippi, April 9, May 17 and 18. ]\Ir. O. C. Pol- 

 ing took sets of this Hawk's eggs near Quincy, Illinois, in May. A 

 set of two eggs were brought to me which were taken in Knox county, 

 Ohio, May 26, 1886. 



The eggs are of a grayish, lavender-gray or yellowish-white ground 

 color, variously marked with spots and blotches of fawn color and um- 

 ber-brown and chestnut. Two or three are the usual number laid, and 

 four are exceptional. The average size is 1.90 x 1.54.! 



'^'Many nests of the Raptores described by writers as resembling those of the Crow may safely be 

 attributed to the latter as their architects, and wherever Crows breed abundantly it is almost an assurance 

 that some species, of Hawk or Owl may be found nesting in the immediate vicinity. 



f This is the average size given by Mr. Norris, taken from a series of seventeen sets in his 

 cabinet, nine of which came from Minnesota, three from Mississippi, one from Massachusetts, and four 

 from Pennsylvania; forty-two eggs in all. Mr. Norris states that there are two types of coloration in the 

 series; twenty-four of the eggs have markings of very subdued tints of pearl-gray, lavendar-gray, lilac-gray 

 and ecru-drab, on a faint yellowish or bluish-white ground; the tints in many instances have the appearance 

 of being under the shell, and are present in specks, spots and blotches. The remaining eighteen eggs are 

 marked with spots and blotches of fawn color, russet, walnut-brown, burnt umber and chestnut. Some of 

 the sizes from this series are as follows: 1.74x152, 1.76x1.50, 1.86x1.46,1.87x1.53, 1.90x1.43, 1.90x1.54, 

 1.99x1.53,2.01x1.62,2.08x1.52. See Ornithologist and Oologist, Vol. XII, pp. 9-11, and Vol. XIII, p. 21. 



