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SWAINSON’S BUZZARD. 285. 
varies with the requirements of the location, being more or less 
conical in an upright crotch, flatter on a fork. The interior hol- 
lowing is slight. An average external diameter may be given as 
two feet, and depth half as much. I was too late for eggs in 
the locality above mentioned ; the only nest I found with anything 
in it contained two half-fledged young. This was on the 15th of 
August—so late as to induce the belief that perhaps two broods 
may be reared in a season, especially as before this date I had ob- 
served many full grown yearlings onthe wing. ‘This nest built 
about forty feet high, in an oak tree, was very untidy, matted in- 
side with excrement and the scurfy exfoliation from the growing 
feathers of the youngsters, and encumbered with portions of sev- 
eral gophers. The nestlings were too young to make any resist- 
ance beyond a menacing hiss and a very mixed flapping when 
they were unceremoniously pitched out. The mother was sho 
near the nest with a pistol-ball, but her partner kept prudently 
out of the way. This bird had not reached her mature plumage. 
The young had been well cared for; their crops were full of go- 
pher-meat at the time, and they were very fat. 
In July, I had a live young one in captivity, at about the age 
of these two ; and early in August, I possessed a completely feath- 
ered and full grown bird of the year, probably hatched in May. 
This shows that either two broods are reared, or that the laying 
Season runs through most of the summer. This grown young one 
made rather an acceptable capture for some days, as he was trim 
and shapely, with a fine eye and general military bearing, as well . 
as an excellent appetite. But then he was bad-tempered, took the 
most civil advances unkindly, and would not even fraternize with 
a pair of very well disposed and sensible owls that were picketed 
with him. At last, when he so totally failed to appreciate his po- 
sition as to use his claws with painful effect, he was summarily ex- 
ecuted. Both this and the younger one before him had a peculiarly 
plaintive whistle to signify hunger or a sense of loneliness, a note 
that was almost musical in intonation. This was the only cry I 
heard from them; the old birds have the harsh loud scream, much 
alike in all our large hawks. r, 
The quarry of Swainson’s buzzard is of a very humble nature. 
-I never saw one stoop upon a wild-fowl or grouse, and though they 
probably strike rabbits, like the red-tails, their prey is ordinarily 
nothing larger than gophers. Though really strong and sufficiently 
