Plate XLIX. 
Fig, 3. BUTEO LMEATUS— Red- Shouldered Hawk, 
The Red-shouldered Hawk, although throughout the year a common resident of the State, is more 
plentiful in winter than in summer. Its distribution during the nesting season is irregular. About 
Circleville, the Red-tailed Hawk seems to take its place, and in some sections where it is plentiful during 
the nesting season, I am informed, the Red-tailed Hawk is uncommon. Dr. J. M. Wheaton, in his re- 
port upon the ornithology of Ohio, states that the two species mentioned seem complementary to each 
other. 
The nest is constructed in March or the first part of April. But one brood is reared by a single 
pair during the season. 
LOCALITY : 
The nest is placed in a tall tree; usually in a retired wood, near low, swampy ground. 
POSITION: 
A perpendicular or horizontal fork is' chosen for the site, at a distance of fifty feet or more from the 
ground. Occasionally, a nest is found much lower; but, as a rule, they are high up in the largest trees. 
MATERIALS : 
The nest is composed principally of coarse sticks, arranged into a strong, round platform, slightly 
concave on top. In the concavity are usually placed moss, feathers, strips of bark, corn-husks, or other 
soft materials, which serve as a lining. The depth of a nest used for the first time is about four inches; 
the diameter, about two feet. The diameter of the cavity can not be measured, as it has no well-defined 
outline. 
EGGS: 
Three or four eggs generally constitute a set. The shell is granular; and varies in ground-color 
from white, generally soiled, to cpute a dark shade of yellowish-brown. Somfe eggs are entirely or almost 
unmarked; others are thickly blotched, spotted, and speckled with various shades of brown. One egg 
before me is blotched so thickly, about the basal half, that a mass of almost solid color is formed, which 
covers a third of the shell ; the remaining two-thirds is also heavily marked, but patches of ground-color 
are here and there plainly visible between the blotches and spots. Another egg is spotted pretty regu- 
larly over the entire shell, with marks about the size of a pin’s head. Another egg has fifteen o- 0 od 
sized circular blotches, and about as many more which are two or three times as long- as wide, and much 
less distinct — the latter have their greatest length parallel with the long-diameter of the egg, and be- 
tween these are innumerable dots and sp>eckles. Another has fifteen to twenty marks, composed of 
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