R£d-TaiLed hawR. 



37 



are much rounded and pure white, the full complement being two 

 to a nest. While the female sits, she is fed b}* the male, who 

 during this time shows great care and tenderness for his mate. 

 The young are fed by both parents until they are able to take care 

 of themselves, after which they leave their parents and begin to 

 wander. 



The flesh of the Wild Pigeon is in no great esteem, it being 

 rather dry and of a very dark color, although when kept in 

 cages and fed on corn and buckwheat for some time, their flesh 

 acquires great superiority. 



In captivity, the Passenger Pigeon is easily kept for a number 

 of years, and readily propagate. There is no zoological garden 

 where this species is wanting. 



PLATE XXX. 



The Red-tailed Hawk. {Buteo Borealis.) 



The Red-tailed Hawk is an inhabitant of a large extent of terri- 

 tory of this continent, but is mostly found from Upper Canada 

 down the whole of the Atlantic coast to the Gulf of Mexico, and 

 is occasionally met with in the Rocky Mountains. The Red- 

 tailed Hawk is not so numerous as some other large Hawks that 

 are found in North America. In winter, it chiefly frequents low, 

 swampy grounds covered by willows, in which four or five of this 

 species may be found eagerly watching on an old stump of a wil- 

 low for small quadrupeds, frogs, etc., which usually form part of 

 their food. This bird of prey will also, when a good opportunity 

 offers, attack poultry, by singling out a chicken, and, sweeping 

 low and swiftly over it, grasp it with its tallows, and bear it off 

 toward the woods for food. Unlike others of his kindred, chicken- 

 hunting is not a regular occupation of this bird ; it is only occa- 

 sionally, and then by surprising a stray one. 



Wilson says:* "I am sorry to say" — describing his figures — 

 "are almost all I have to give toward elucidating their history. 

 Birds, naturally thinly dispersed over a vast extent of country ; 

 retiring during summer to the depth of the forests to breed ; ap- 

 proaching the habitations of man, like other thieves and plunder- 

 ers, with shy and cautious jealousy ; seldom permitting a near 

 advance ; subject to great changes of plumage ; and, since the 

 decline of falconry, seldom or never domesticated — offer to those 

 who wish eagerly to investigate their history, and to delineate 

 their particular character and manners, great and insurmountable 

 difficulties. Little more can be done in such cases than to identify 

 the species, and trace it through the various quarters of the world 

 where it has been certainly met with. The Red-tailed Hawk is 

 most frequently seen in the lower parts of Pennsylvania during the 

 severity oU winter. Among the extensive meadows that border 

 the Schuylkill and Delaware, below Philadelphia, where flocks 

 of Larks (Alaucfa magna) and mice and moles are in great 

 abundance, many individuals of this Hawk spend the greater part 

 of the winter. Others prowl around the plantations, looking out for 

 vagrant chickens ; their method of seizing which is by sweeping 

 swiftly over the spot, and, grappling them with their talons, bear 

 them away to the woods. 



"This species inhabits the whole of the United States, and, I 

 believe, is not migratory, as I found it, in the month of May, as 

 far south as Fort Adams, in the Mississippi territory. The young 

 were, at that time, nearly as large as their parents, and were very 

 clamorous, making an incessant squealing noise. One which I 

 shot contained in his stomach mingled fragments of frogs and 

 lizards." 



Thomas Nuttall, A. M., F. L. S., etc., in his "Manual of the 



* I'age 450. 



Ornithology of the United States and of Canada," gives the follow 

 ing interesting description of the Red-tailed Hawk or Buzzard : 



"This beautiful Buzzard inhabits most parts of the United States, 

 being observed from Canada to Florida ; also, far westward up the 

 Missouri, and even on the coasts of the Northern Pacific ocean. 

 . . . The young birds soon become very submissive, and allow 

 themselves to be handled with impunity by those who feed them. 

 The older birds sometimes contest with each other in the air about 

 their prey, and nearly or wholly descend to the earth grappled in 

 each other's talons. Though this species has the general aspect of 

 the Buzzard, its manners are very similar to those of the Goshawk. 

 It is equally fierce and predatory, prowling around the farm often 

 when straitened for food, and seizing now and then a hen or 

 chicken, which it snatches by making a lateral approach. It 

 sweeps along near the surface of the ground, and, grasping the 

 prey in his talons, bears it away to devour in some place of secu- 

 rity These depredations on the farm-yard happen, however, only 

 in the winter. At all other seasons this is one of the shyest and 

 most difficult birds to approach. They will at times pounce upon 

 rabbits and considerable sized birds, particularly Larks, and have 

 been observed in the Southern States perseveringly to pursue 

 squirrels from bough to bough until they are overtaken and seized 

 in their talons. They are frequently seen near wet meadows, 

 where mice, moles, and frogs are prevalent, and also feed upon 

 lizards, appearing, indeed, often content with the most humble 

 game. 



"They usually associate in pairs, and seem much attached to 

 each other ; yet they often find it convenient and profitable to sep- 

 arate in hunting their prey, about which they would readily quarrel 

 if brought into contact. Though a good deal of their time passes 

 in indolence, while perched in some tall and deadened tree, yet at 

 others they may be seen beating the ground as they fly over it in 

 all directions in quest of game. On some occasions they amuse 

 themselves by ascending to a vast elevation, like the aspiring 

 Eagle. On a fine evening, about the middle of January, in South 

 Carolina, I observed one of these birds leave its withered perch, 

 and, soaring aloft over the wild landscape in a mood of contem- 

 plation, begin to ascend toward the thin skirting of elevated clouds 

 above him. At length he passed this sublime boundary, and was 

 now perceived and soon followed by his ambitious mate ; and in a 

 little time, by circular ascending gyrations, they both disappeared 

 in the clear azure of the heavens ; and though I waited for their 

 reappearance half an hour, they still continued to be wholly in- 

 visible. This amusement, or predilection for the cooler regions of 

 the atmosphere, seems more or less common to all the rapacious 

 birds. In numerous instances, this exercise must be wholly inde- 

 pendent of the inclination for surveying their prey, as few of them 

 besides the Falcon descend direct upon their quarry. Many, as 

 well as the present species, when on the prowl, fly near to the 

 surface of the ground, and often wait and watch so as to steal 

 upon their victims before they can take the alarm. Indeed, the 

 Condor frequents and rests upon the summit of the Andes, above 

 which they are seen to soar in the boundless ocean of space, 

 enjoying the invigorating and rarified atmosphere, and only de- 

 scending to the plains when impelled by the cravings of hunger." 



The nest of this species is built early in March, in the fork of 

 a tree, pretty high from the ground, and is composed of sticks, 

 stalks of rushes, etc., and is lined inside with some fibers, dry 

 rushes, and dry grass, and contains two, and sometimes three, 

 dirty-white eggs, with a coarsely grained shell, and of a rather 

 proportionally large size. The young are at first covered with 

 a soft white down, and have a peculiarly clumsy appearance. 

 They soon develop, and become able to support themselves. 



In color, the young of this bird are different for the first sea- 

 son, which has frequently caused some Ornithologists to class them 

 as a separate species, under the name White-breasted Hawk, or 

 American Buzzard {Falco levcrianns). The general appear- 

 ance of the bird indicates that it is no other than the young of 



