NORTH AMFllfrrAV BIRDS. 



211 



nests, the parents sailed in circles overhead, constantly uttering a cry resembling 

 the bleating of a goat. Each nest contained one egg. The first -was fresh ; size 2.35 

 xl.91; dirty- white, with a few reddish blotches at the smaller end. The second, 

 partly incubated, was like the first, but the blotches were rather sparsely distributed 

 over the entire egg; size, 2.35x1.85. Mr. Edwin C. Davis found a nest of this Hawk 

 seven miles south of Port Grifiin, Texas, containing two slightly incubated eggs, on 

 the 2d of June, 1886; it was in a mesquite bush, eight feet from the ground. This is 

 doubtless late nesting, as all other nests found were empty. Three ssU of two eggs 

 each are in Mr. Norris' collection; one taken May 2, 1884, near Corpus Christi, 

 measures 2.20x1.80, 2.19x1.80; their color is light grayish, faintly and sparingly 

 spotted with light drab; another collected in the same locality March 24, 1886, one 

 egg of which is unmarked, and the other faintly spotted with fawn color at the large 

 end; sizes, 2.17x1.77, 2.25x1.78; the third set was taken on the Arkansas river, Texas, 

 April 2, 1888; they are dull grayish-white, faintly and sparingly marked with light 

 fawn color; sizes, 2.33x1.65, 2.30x1.73. 



342. SWAINSON'S HAWK. Buten sivaiiisoin Bonap. 

 North America from the Mississippi Valley to the Pacific 

 regions and south to Buenos Ayres. Casual 

 in New England. 



One of the commonest and most charac- 

 teristic of the large Hawks in various places 

 of the West. Many are killed, as they com- 

 mit great depredations in the poultry yards; 

 their food, however, consists largely of birds 

 and the smaller quadrupeds — squirrels, goph- 

 ers, rats, mice, etc. The flight of Swainson's 

 Hawk is usually slow, but in pursuit of its 

 prey its swiftness is said to remind one of the 

 dash of Acciplter velox. Sharp-shinned Hawk. 

 The sites which are chosen for nesting places 

 by this Hawk are extremely variable ; in some 

 localities the nest is built on the ground, on 

 bushes, small saplings and on the ledges of 

 rocky cliffs. Old nests of hawks and crows 

 are fitted up for the occasion ; but usually it is 

 built in the tallest trees and in an almost in- 

 accessible position in the outer branches. Mr. 

 L. Jones states that in Iowa this bird, while 

 breeding, is found principally in moderately 

 timbered tracts, selecting less inaccessible 

 places for its nests than Buten horealis, but of 

 the same position and composition. The eggs 

 are deposited as late as May 15, usually May 

 1. Mr. A. M. Shields took a set of two eggs 

 ol this Hawk, May 21, 1886, in the vicinity of 

 Los Angeles, California, from a nest situated 

 in the extremity of the branches of an oak 

 tree, fully fifty feet from the ground; these 

 are in my cabinet and measure 2.20x1.61, 2.20 



Geog. Dist.— "Western 

 north to the Arctic 



34S. Swainson's Hawk. 



