The Western Red-tail ( Biiteo horealis) 



By Lynds Jones 



Description. — Adult: Plumage chiefly blackish, sometimes uniform sooty, 

 except tail and its upper coverts ; individually variable between form nearly as 

 light as B. horealis and deepest sooty brown ; breast usually extensively rufous, 

 and lower belly with more or less white, but these colors obliterated in completely 

 melanistic specimens ; tail as in horealis, with a conspicuous black subterminal 

 bar and often with several more or less complete additional bars. Immature: 

 As in horealis but darker throughout and more heavily spotted below ; the plumage 

 (except tail) sometimes wholly dusky as in adult (Ridgway). Size as in preced- 

 ing form. 



Recognition Marks. — Like Buteo horealis but more heavily colored. 

 Nest and Eggs as in B. horealis. 



General Range. — "Western North America from the Rocky Mountains to 

 the Pacific, south into Mexico ; casual east to Illinois." 



A specimen in the O. S. U. collection is labelled "Buteo calnrus, Red-tailed 

 Blackhawk, Adult male, November 20, 1875, Franklin County, Ohio," and bears 

 the signature of Dr. Jasper. The bird is a handsome and strongly marked example 

 but lacks the additional barring of the tail which is usually present or at least 

 indicated. Nothing further is known of the circumstances attending its occurrence. 



Darker colored than most hawks. 



Northern Water -thrush {seiums novehoracends novebora- 



censis) 



Range: Breeds chiefly in Canadian Zone from northern Ontario, northern 

 Ungava, and Newfoundland south to central Ontario, northwestern New York 

 and northern New England, and in mountains south to Pennsylvania and West 

 Virginia; winters from the \'alley of Mexico to Colombia and British Guiana, and 

 from the Bahamas throughout the West Indies. 



So far as appearance, motions, and habits go, the water-thrush is more 

 thrush than warbler, and one who sees him for the first time walking sedately 

 along with teetering tail may well be excused for declining to class him with the 

 warbler family. He is partial to swamps and wet places, is a ground frequenter, 

 and in no real sense aboreal. Though an inhabitant of the wilds and showing 

 strong preference for swampy ground, he not infrequently visits gardens even in 

 populous towns, and seems to be quite at home there in the shade of the shrub- 

 bery. A sharp and characteristic alarm note often calls the attention of the 

 chance passerby, who would otherwise overlook the bird in its shady recesses. 



Few who are privileged to hear its notes will dissent from the opinion that 

 the water-thrush is one of the foremost of the warbler choir and a real musician. 

 The bird is a ground builder, placing its nest under the roots of an upturned tree, 

 in banks, or in cavities of various sorts. 



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