74 
WINTER FALCON. 
almost entirely among our meadows and marshes. He some- 
times stuffs himself so enormously with these reptiles, that the 
prominency of his craw makes a large bunch, and he appears 
to fly with difficulty. I have taken the broken fragments, and 
whole carcasses of ten frogs, of different dimensions, from the 
crop of a single individual. Of his genius and other exploits, I 
am unable to say much. He appears to be a fearless and active 
bird, silent, and not very shy. One which I kept for some 
time, and which was slightly wounded, disdained all attempts 
made to reconcile him to confinement ,* and would not suffer a 
person to approach without being highly irritated, throwing 
himself backward, and striking, with expanded talons, with 
great fury. Though shorter winged than some of his tribe, 
yet I have no doubt, but, with proper care, he might be trained 
to strike nobler game, in a bold style, and with great effect. 
But the education of Hawks in this country may well be post- 
poned for a time, until fewer improvements remain to be made 
in that of the human subject. 
Length of the Winter Hawk, twenty inches; extent, forty-one 
inches, or nearly three feet six inches ; cere and legs, yellow, 
the latter long, and feathered for an inch below the knee ; 
bill, bluish black, small, furnished with a tooth in the upper 
mandible ; eye, bright amber, cartilage over the eye, very 
prominent, and of a dull green ; head, sides of the neck, and 
throat, dark brown, streaked with white ; lesser coverts with 
its shrill cries. The top of a tall tree seems to be preferred, as I have found 
its nest most commonly placed there, not far from the edges of woods bordering 
plantations ; it is seated in the forks of a large branch, towards its extremity, 
and is as bulky as that of the common Crow ; it is formed externally of dry 
sticks and Spanish moss, and is lined with withered grass and fibrous roots of 
different sorts, arranged in a circular manner. The eggs are generally four, 
sometimes five, of a broad oval form, granulated all over, pale blue, faintly 
blotched with brownish red at the smaller end.” 
From the above account it is seen that the Red-shouldered Hawk has much 
more the habits of an Astur than the other, which seems to lean towards the 
Cirri; the breeding-places of the latter are, however, not mentioned by any 
writer. The different states of plumage in these birds, are deserving of 
farther research. — Ed. 
