OF VIRGINIA 111 
either side of his craw; evidently on arriving at his perch 
the hawk had dropped it, and the chicken had hidden on 
striking the ground. The nest is rather a poorly made 
affair, often a deserted crow’s or squirrel’s nest added to; 
of sticks, dry leaves and strips of bark, lined with bark 
fiber. Fresh eggs May 10th to 15th, four to five in 
number. The eggs have a pale bluish ground, sparingly 
marked with blotches of pale reddish-brown. The majority 
of sets are unmarked. The nests are usually placed in 
a crotch of beech or other hardwood trees, from twenty to 
forty feet up. Size of eggs, 1.90x1.45. Only one brood 
a season. 
GENUS BUTEO. 
[337]. Buteo borealis borealis (Gmelin). Red-tailed 
Hawk. 
[Hen Hawk. Fantail]. 
Rayer.—Eastern North America, from Saskatchewan, 
Wisconsin, and Illinois east to central Keewatin and New- 
foundland, and south to eastern Texas, northeastern 
Mexico, the Gulf Coast, Florida, and the Greater Antilles. 
This is the largest of the hawks breeding within our 
area, and is by no means a common one, though further 
inland it becomes so. A few breed on the ‘Eastern Shore,” 
becoming more common as we go northward, while 
My. J. E. Gould, of Berkley, positively identified a pair 
of birds breeding near Money Point in Norfolk County. 
They do not breed on the James River Peninsula at 
all, and are rather a scarce bird throughout our coast 
