112 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK IN CAPTIVITY. 
superior strength or a lack of spirit on the part of the other. 
In fact the male would often at feeding time wait quietly on 
his perch until the female had satisfied her hunger, before 
venturing himself to manifest even any desire for food. 
Although water was several times placed in the cage, both 
refused to either drink or bathe. 
The anticipation of a prolonged absence from home 
caused the final necessity for disposing of the captives, and 
they were accordingly sacrificed to science on the second of 
August, after a confinement of about two and one half 
months. When killed they were both in healthy condition ; 
quite fat and very free from vermin, none being found upon 
the female, and upon the other, only a single specimen of 
a common parasite of Buteo lineatus, the Docophorus 
buteonis of Packard. 
The birds, for several days previous to their death, had 
been maintained on short rations, and had not been fed 
since noon of the day before. Of this food not a vestige 
had remained in the cage at seven P.M., yet at nine o’clock 
the next morning, when the lives of the captives were taken, 
the stomach of one of the birds (the female) was filled with 
partially digested beef. Thus at the very least calculation 
this food had remained fourteen hours in the stomach un- 
assimilated ; which circumstance, in view of the exceedingly 
rapid digestion of the Rafsores, seems somewhat remarkable, 
The stomach of this bird contained also a few pieces of the 
excelsior packing with which the floor of the cage had been 
covered. The stomach of the other contained no food, but 
was distended to its utmost capacity by a compact mass of 
excelsior. That this excelsior had been taken into the 
stomach by adhering to the bird’s food would seem to be the 
most plausible explanation of its presence. It might, how- 
ever, be interesting to have determined whether or not the 
Red-shouldered Hawk, like many other species of rapacious 
birds, would have disposed of this indigestible substance by 
ejection through the cesophagus. 
