50 NORTHERN ZOOLOGY. 



[15.] 2. Buteo borealis. Red-tailed Buzzard. 



Genus. Buteo. Ray. 



American Buzzard. Lath. Syn., i., p. 50, sp. 31. Mature. 



Red-tailed Falcon. Penn. Arct. Zool., ii., p. 205, No. 100. Mature. 



Leverian Falcon. Ibe m, ii., p. 200, No. 101. ? Fide Bonap. 



Falco borealis. Lath. Ind., i., p. 25, sp. 50. 



Falco leverianus. Idem, i., p. 18, sp. 31. Fide Bonap. 



Red-tailed Hawk. (Falco borealis.) Wilson, vi., p. 75, pi. 52, f. 2, misprinted for f. 1. Mature male. 



American Buzzard, or White-breasted Hawk. (Falco leverianus.) Idem, vi., p. 78, pi. 52, f. 1, misprinted 



for f. 2. Fide Bonap. 

 Falco borealis. Sabine. Frankl. Journ., p. C70. Bonap. Syn,, p. 32, No. 20. 



The Red-tailed Buzzard is rather common in the fur-countries, which it visits in 

 the summer. It winters in Pennsylvania, and, according to Wilson, even breeds 

 within the limits of the United States. Specimens were shot by the members of 

 the Expedition on the Rocky Mountains, the plains of the Saskatchewan, and at 

 York Factory, between the fifty-third and fifty-seventh parallels of latitude *. It 

 preys on small quadrupeds, birds, and frogs. In the spring of the year, when 

 the small Marmots, that inhabit the plains of the Saskatchewan, leave their bur- 

 rows in quest of a mate, and, in the ardour of the pursuit, have laid aside their 

 usual wariness, they often fall a prey to this Buzzard, which, sweeping along near 

 the ground, with scarcely any change in the rapidity or direction of its flight, 

 singles out one of these little animals, and, striking its claws into its neck, carries 

 it off to the distance of several hundred yards, alights on the ground, and tears it 

 to pieces. — R. 



The bill of the Red-tailed Buzzard is proportionally shorter and higher than 

 that of the common Buzzard, with the cere confined to a smaller portion of its 

 base : the sinuosity of the upper mandible is also much greater. In all these 

 characters there is a close resemblance to the Goshawk, whose bill is not so 

 strongly sinuated as this is ; it is, nevertheless, shorter, and consequently stronger, 

 than that of the present birdf. — Sw. 



DESCRIPTION 

 Of a female, killed 16th May, 1827, at Carlton House, lat. 53°. 



Colour of the dorsal aspect intermediate between deep clove-brown and liver-brown. On 



* Mr. Taylor has also received five adult specimens from the Table Land of Mexico, procured, near Real del Monte, 

 by the late Mr. Morgan. — Sw. 



■f- In Audubon's plate of the male and female Falco borealis, the former has a strongly and sharply sinuated upper 

 mandible, whilst in the latter the cutting margin is nearly straight — R. 



