RED-TAILED HAWK 133 



— with only down, at least no feathers, — and one ad- 

 dled egg, also three or four white-bellied or deer mouse 

 (Mus leucopus 1 ), a perch, and a sucker, 2 and a gray- 

 rabbit's skin. He had seen squirrels, etc., in other nests. 

 These fishes were now stale. I found the remains of a 

 partridge under the tree. The reason I did not see my 

 hawks at Well Meadow last year was that he found and 

 broke up their nest there, containing five eggs. 



The hawk measures exactly 22£ inches in length and 

 4 feet 4J inches in alar extent, and weighs 3£ {sounds. 

 The ends of closed wings almost two inches short of end 

 of tail. General color above of wings and back an oli- 

 vaceous brown, thickly barred with waving lines of very 

 dark brown, there being a much broader bar next to the 

 tip of the secondaries and tertiaries ; and the first five 

 primaries are nearly black toward the ends. A little 

 white appears, especially on the tertiaries. The wing- 

 coverts and scapulars glossed with purple reflections. 

 The twelve tail-feathers (which MacGillivray says is 

 the number in all birds of prey, i. e. the Falconinm and 

 Strigince) showing five and three quarters inches a 

 clear brown red, or rather fox-color, above, with a nar- 

 row dark band within half an inch of the end, which is 

 tipped with dirty white. A slight inclination to dusky 

 bars near the end of one side feather. Lower tail- 

 coverts for nearly an inch white, barred with fox-color. 

 Head and neck a paler, inclining to ferruginous, brown. 

 Beneath : Breast and wing-linings brown and white, 

 the feathers of first centred with large dark-brown has- 



1 [Now known as Peromyscus leucopus noveboracensis. ] 

 a . I think these must have heen dead fish they found. 



