450 RED.-TAILED {IAWK. 
circle of the face, black, finely marked with small, curving spots of 
white ; back and wings, dark brown, sprinkled and spotted with white, 
pale ferruginous, and dusky; primaries, barred with brownish yellow 
and dusky, darkening towards the tips ; secondaries, more finely barred 
and powdered with white and dusky ; tail, rounded at the end, of the 
same length with the wings, beautifully barred and marbled with dull 
white and pale rusty, on a dark brown ground; throat and breast, 
clouded with rusty, cream, black and white ; belly, beautifully streaked 
with large arrow-heads of black; legs and thighs, plain pale rusty, 
feathered to the claws, which are blue black, large, and sharp; inside 
of the wing, brownish yellow, with a large spot of black at the root of 
the primaries. Fig. 202 was a female. Of the male I cannot speak 
precisely ; though, from the number of these birds which I have exam- 
ined in the fall, when it is difficult to ascertain their sex, I conjecture 
that they differ very little in color. 
About six or seven miles below Philadelphia, and not far from the 
Delaware, is a low swamp, thickly covered with trees, and inundated 
during great part of the year. This place is the resort of great num- 
bers of the Qua-Bird, or Night Raven, (Ardea nycticorax,) where they- 
build in large companies. On the 25th of April, while wading among 
the dark recesses of this place, observing the habits of these birds, I 
discovered a Long-eared Owl, which had taken possession of one of 
their nests, and was sitting. On mounting to the nest, I found it con- 
tained four eggs; and, breaking one of these, the young appeared al- 
most ready to leave the shell. There were numbers of the Qua-Birds” 
nests on the adjoining trees all around, and one of them actually on 
the same tree. Thus we see how unvarying are the manners of this 
species, however remote and different the countries may be where it 
has taken up its residence. 
‘RED-TAILED HAWK.— FALCO BOREALIS. — Fie. 205. 
Arct. Zool. p. 205, No. 100. — American Buzzard, Lath. i. 50.— Turt. Syst. p. 151. 
—F. aquilinus cauda ferruga, Great Eagle Hawk, Bartram, p. 290. — Peale’s 
Museum, No. 182. 
BUTEO BOREALIS, —Swatnson.* 
Faleo (sub-genus Buteo) borealis, Bonap. Synop. p. 32.— The Red-tailed Hawk. 
Aud. pl. 51, male and female ; Orn.Biog. i. p. 265. — Buteo borealis, North. Zool. 
ii. p. 50. 
Tue figure of this bird, ag 205,) and those of Nos. 206 and 207, 
are offered to the public with a confidence in their fidelity ; but these, 
I am sorry to say, are almost all I have to give towards elucidating 
* The Red-tailed Buzzard is a species peculiar to America, and, in its adult 
state, seems perfectly known to ornithologists. The figure on the same plate, and 
next described by our :uthor, has been subject to more discussion, and has been 
