42 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



gog, pounced at a Bed Squirrel (S. Hudsonius), tliat was 

 chattering at me from the top of a hollow stump : the 

 squirrel barely escaped by diving into the hollow, when 

 the hawk, turning suddenly, rushed at my little songster, 

 and, clutching him through the vitals, bore him off in 

 exultation. So sudden was the attack, that I had no time 

 to cock my gun before he was half a dozen rods off, when I 

 fired, and brought him to the ground : the sparrow was, of 

 course, dead. The hawk was only wing-tipped; and, throw- 

 ing himself on his back, his feet extended, he awaited my 

 approach. As I drew near him, he emitted a sort of hiss ; 

 and, as he glared at me with rage-enkindled eye, he appeared 

 the very incarnation of wrath. On killing him, I found that 

 he had had one of his tarsi broken before, apparently by a 

 shot : it had healed, but had lost none of its strength ; for, as 

 I touched him with a stick, he grasped it with both feet so 

 powerfully that all his claws were thrust deep into the wood. 

 The nest is rarely found. One that I visited in West Kox- 

 bury, Mass., on the 20th of May, 1864, had four eggs ; it 

 was built in a tall pine-tree, in a fork near the top ; it was 

 composed of coarse sticks and twigs, and was lined with 

 the bark of the red cedar and a few leaves and feathers. 

 The eggs, which are now before me, vary from 2 by 1.70 

 inches, to 2.15 by 1.72 inches ; their color is a dirty yellow- 

 ish-white, covered more or less thickly in the different 

 specimens with spots and blotches of reddish-brown : an- 

 other egg, obtained in Newton, Mass., in the previous 

 season, is somewhat smaller, and the markings are fainter, 

 and of a lighter color. Two other specimens in my collec- 

 tion, collected in New Hampshire, correspond to this 

 description ; but the spots are much finer and of a darker 

 color. 



ARCHIBUTEO, Beehm. 



Archibuteo, Brehm, Isis, 1828, p. 1269. 



Tarsi densely feathered to the toes, but more or less naked behind, and then cov- 

 ered with scales. Wings long and wide; toes short; claws moderate; tail rather 

 short, wide. Other characters very similar to those of Buteo 



