WINTER FALCON. 



75 



almost entirely among our meadows and marshes. He some- 

 times stuffs himself so enormously with these reptiles, that the 

 prominency of his craw makes a large bunch, and he appears 

 to fly with difficulty. I have taken the broken fragments and 

 whole carcasses of ten frogs, of different dimensions, from 

 the crop of a single individual. Of his genius and other 

 exploits, I am unable to say much. He appears to be a 

 fearless and active bird, silent, and not veiy shy. One which 

 I kept for some time, and which was slightly wounded, dis- 

 dained all attempts made to reconcile him to confinement ; 

 and would not suffer a person to approach without being 

 highly irritated, throwing himself backward, and striking, 

 with expanded talons, with great fury. Though shorter 

 winged than some of his tribe, yet I have no doubt but, with 

 proper care, he might be trained to strike nobler game, in a 

 bold style, and with great effect. But the education of hawks in 

 this country may well be postponed for a time, until fewer im- 

 provements remain to be made in that of the human subject. 



Length of the winter hawk, twenty inches ; extent, forty-one 

 inches, or nearly three feet six inches ; cere and legs, yellow, 

 the latter long, and feathered for an inch below the knee ; 

 bill, bluish black, small, furnished with a tooth in the upper 

 mandible ; eye, bright amber, cartilage over the eye, very 

 prominent, and of a dull green ; head, sides of the neck, and 



it emits its shrill cries. The top of a tall tree seems to be preferred, 

 as I have found its nest most commonly placed there, not far from the 

 edges of woods bordering plantations ; it is seated in the forks of a large 

 branch, towards its extremity, and is as bulky as that of the common 

 crow ; it is formed externally of dry sticks and Spanish moss, and is 

 lined with withered grass and fibrous roots of different sorts, arranged 

 in a circular manner. The eggs are generally four, sometimes five, of 

 a broad oval form, granulated all over, pale blue, faintly blotched with 

 brownish red at the smaller end." 



From the above account it is seen that the red-shouldered hawk has 

 much more the habits of an Astur than the other, which seems to lean 

 towards the Circi; the breeding places of the latter are, however, not 

 mentioned by any writer. The different states of plumage in these 

 birds are deserving of farther research. — Ed. 



