THE BROAD-WINGED BUZZARD. 45 



hold with its talons. If a stick is presented to it in this state, it will clench 

 it at once, and allow itself to be carried hanging to it for some distance, 

 indeed until the muscles become paralyzed, when it drops, and again employs 

 the same means of defence. 



When feeding, it generally holds its prey with both feet, and tears and 

 swallows the parts without much plucking. I must here remark, that birds 

 of prey never cover their victims by extending the wings over them, unless 

 when about to be attacked by other birds or animals, that evince a desire to 

 share with them or carry off the fruit of their exertions. In the stomach of 

 this bird I have found wood-frogs, portions of small snakes, together with 

 feathers, and the hair of several small species of quadrupeds. I do not think 

 it ever secures birds on the wing, at least I never saw it do so. 



The nest, w T hich is about the size of that of the Common Crow, is usually 

 placed on pretty large branches, and near the stem or trunk of the tree. It 

 is composed externally of dry sticks and briars, internally of numerous small 

 roots, and is lined with the large feathers of the Common Fowl and other 

 birds. The eggs are four or five, of a dull greyish-white, blotched with dark 

 brown. They are deposited as early as the beginning of March, in low 

 places, but not until a fortnight later in the mountainous parts of the districts 

 in which the bird more frequently breeds. 



Broad-winged Hawk, Falco Pennsylvanicus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 92. 



Falco Pennsylvanicus, Bonap. Syn., p. 29. 



Broad-winged Hawk, Falco Pennsylvanicus, Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 105. 



Broad-winged Hawk, Falco Pennsylvanicus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i. p. 461; vol. v. p. 377. 



Adult Male. 



Bill shortish, as broad as long, the sides convex, the dorsal outline convex 

 from the base; upper mandible with the edges slightly inflected, waved with 

 a broad rounded lobe, the tip trigonal, descending obliquely, acute; lower 

 mandible inflected at the edges, rounded at the tip. Nostrils oval, oblique. 

 Head rather large, flattened above. Neck shortish. Body ovate, broad 

 anteriorly. Wings rather long. Legs longish, rather robust, roundish; tarsi 

 covered before and behind with scutella; toes covered above with scutella, 

 scabrous and tuberculate beneath; middle toe much the longest, outer con- 

 nected at the base by a membrane, and shorter than the inner; claws long, 

 curved, roundish, very acute. 



Plumage ordinary, compact. Feathers of the head narrow, of the back 

 broad and rounded, of the neck oblong. Space between the bill and eye 

 covered with bristly feathers. Wing very broad, the primary quills broad, 

 slightly narrowed toward the end, rounded, the fourth longest, the secondary 



Vol. I. 7 



