THE BROAD-WINGED BUZZARD. 
45 
hold with its talons. If a stick is presented to it in this state, it will clench 
it at once, and allow itself to be carried hanging to it for some distance, 
indeed until the muscles become paralyzed, when it drops, and again 
employs the same means of defence. 
When feeding, it generally holds its prey with both feet, and tears and 
swallows the parts without much plucking. I must here remark, that birds 
of prey never cover their victims by extending the wings over them, unless 
when about to be attacked by other birds or animals, that evince a desire to 
share with them or carry off the fruit of their exertions. In the stomach of 
this bird I have found wood-frogs, portions of small snakes, together with 
feathers, and the hair of several small species of quadrupeds. I do not think 
it ever secures birds on the wing, at least I never saw it do so. 
The nest, which is about the size of that of the Common Crow, is usually 
placed on pretty large branches, and near the stem or trunk of the tree. It 
is composed externally of dry sticks and briars, internally of numerous small 
roots, and is lined with the large feathers of the Common Fowl and other 
birds. The eggs are four or five, of a dull greyish-white, blotched with 
dark-brown. They are deposited as early as the beginning of March, 
in low places, but not until a fortnight later in the mountainous parts of 
the districts in which the bird more frequently breeds. 
Broad-winged Hawk, Falco Pennsylvanicus, Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vi. p. 92. 
Falco Pennsylvanicus, Bonap. Syn., p. 29. 
Broad-winged Hawk, Falco Pennsylvanicus , Nutt. Man., vol. i. p. 105. 
Broad-winged Hawk, Falco P ennsylvanicus, Aud. Orn. Biog., vol. i.p. 461 ; 
vol. v. p. 377. 
Adult Male. 
Bill shortish, as broad as long, the sides convex, the dorsal outline 
convex from the base ; upper mandible with the edges slightly inflected, 
waved with a broad rounded lobe, the tip trigonal, descending obliquely, 
acute ; lower mandible inflected at the edges, rounded at the tip. Nostrils 
oval, oblique. Head rather large, flattened above. Neck shortish. Body 
ovate, broad anteriorly. Wings rather long. Legs longish, rather robust, 
roundish ; tarsi covered before and behind with scutella ; toes covered 
above with scutella, scabrous and tuberculate beneath ; middle toe much 
the longest, outer connected at the base by a membrane, and shorter than 
the inner ; claws long, curved, roundish, very acute. 
Plumage ordinary, compact. Feathers of the head narrow, of the back 
broad and rounded, of the neck oblong. Space between the bill and eye 
covered with bristly feathers. Wing very broad, the primary quills broad, 
slightly narrowed toward the end, rounded, the fourth longest, the secondary 
Vol. I. 7 
