112 RED-SHOULDERED HA WK 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 lineatiis, the Docophorus 

 buteojiis 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 Raptorcs, 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 oesophagus. 



