RED- TAIL ED HA WK. 283 



place is the resort of great numbers of the qua-bird, or night 

 raven (Ardea nycticorax), where they build in large com- 

 panies. On the 25th of April, while wading among the dark 

 recesses of this place, observing the habits of these birds, I 

 discovered a long-eared oivl, which had taken possession of 

 one of their nests, and was sitting ; on mounting to the nest, 

 I found it contained four eggs, and, breaking one of these, the 

 young appeared almost ready to leave the shell. There were 

 numbers of the qua-birds' nests on the adjoining trees all 

 around, and one of them actually on the same tree. Thus we 

 see how unvarying are the manners of this species, however 

 remote and different the countries may be where it has taken 

 up its residence. 



BED-TAILED HAWK. (Falco horealis.) 



PLATE LIL— Fig. 2. 



Arct. Zool. p. 205, No. 100. — American Buzzard, Lath. i. 50. — Turt. Si/st. 

 p. 151. — F. aquilinus cauda ferruga, Great Eagle Hawk, Bartram, p. 290. — 

 Peale's Museum, No. 182. 



BUTEO BOREALIS.— Swaiissok.* 



Falco (sub-genus Buteo) borealis, Bonap. Synop. p. 32. — The Eed-tailed Hawk, 

 Aud. pi. 51, male and female; Orn. Biog. i. p. 265. — Buteo borealis, Worth. 

 Zool. ii. p. 50. 



The figure of this bird, and those of the other two hawks on 

 the same plate, are reduced to exactly half the dimensions 

 of the living subjects. These representations are offered to 

 the public with confidence in their fidelity ; but these, I am 



* The red-tailed buzzard is a species peculiar to America, and, in its 

 adult state, seems perfectly known to ornithologists. The figure on the 

 same plate, and next described by our author, has been subject to more 

 discussion, and has been variously named. From the testimonies of 

 Bonaparte and Audubon, it may, however, be certainly considered as 

 the young or immature bird — an idea which Wilson himself entertained, 

 and showed by his mark of interrogation to the young, and the quota- 

 tion of its synonyms. The figure at fig. 2 is the young in immature 

 plumage, where the red tail has not yet appeared, and which is known 

 to authors under the name of F. Leverianus. — Ed. 



