

RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 517 
known only three specimens taken here prior to 1867." At 
Springfield, less than twenty miles in a direct line north of 
East Windsor Hill, and at nearly the same elevation above 
the sea, I have known them to be quite common during 
several winters within the last ten years. Mr. J. G. Scott 
says it was common at Westfield in 1867, and not rare 
during the three or four winters immediately preceding. 
When numerous this species is very destructive to the Ruffed 
Grouse, which forms its prineipal food. In some localities 
they sometimes hunt them almost to extermination. 
Mr. €. J, Maynard informs me that he is confident that 
this species sometimes breeds in Massachusetts. He says he 
once observed a pair at a locality in Weston until the latter 
part of May ; after this time he had no opportunity of ob- 
serving them, but he feels sure that they bred there. This 
is not improbable, since its usual breeding range embraces 
the greater part of northern New England, and probably the 
mountains of Western Massachusetts. 
r. Wood mentions in his letters another interesting fact 
respecting this bird, which I think all careful observers are 
apt to notice, not only in this species but as a general fact; 
namely, that the birds in immature plumage are often larger 
than any specimens obtained in mature plumage. Dr. Wood 
observes, "the young are very unlike the adult both in size 
and markings; the young is the largest until after moulting, 
when the wing and tail feathers never again acquire their 
former dimensions. ‘The same difference is observable in 
the Bald Eagle between the young and the adult.”* I have 
myself observed it in Ardea herodias and other Herons, in 
Thrushes, and in Larus argentatus, and other species of 
Laride. This difference in size between the adult and the 
young has also been reported to me by Messrs. May 
and Bennett. 
Rep-sHoutpereD Hawk. Buteo lineatus Jard. This spe- 
cies was placed in the list of "Summer Visitants" instead of 
REL PONDERA CP MEN E TR curtem iere id 
* See also American Naturalist, October, 1869. 
