280 
RED-TAILED HAWK. 
companies. On the 25th of April, while wading among the 
dark recesses of this place, observing the habits of these birds, 
I discovered a Long-eared Owl , which had taken possession of 
one of their nests, and was sitting ; on mounting to the nest, 
I found it contained four eggs, and, breaking one of these, the 
young appeared almost ready to leave the shell. There were 
numbers of the Qua-birds’ nests on the adjoining trees all 
around, and one of them actually on the same tree. Thus we 
see how unvarying are the manners of this species, however 
remote and different the countries may be where it has taken 
up its residence. 
RED-TAILED HAWK. — FALCO BOREALIS. 
Plate LI I. Fig. 2. 
Arct. Zool. p. 205, No. 100. — American Buzzard, Lath. i. 50. — Turt. Syst. 
p. 151. — F. aquilinus cauda ferruga, Great Eagle Hawk, Bartram, p. 290. — 
Peale's Museum , No. 182. 
BUTEO BOREALIS. — Swainson. * 
Falco (sub-genus JButeo) borealis, Bonap. Synop. p. 82 The Red-tailed Hawk, 
Aud. pi. 51, male and female; Orn. Biog. i. p. 265 Buteo borealis, North. 
Zool. ii. p. 50. 
The figure of this bird, and those of the other two Hawks 
on the same plate, are reduced to exactly half the dimensions 
of the living subjects. These representations are offered to the 
public with a confidence in their fidelity ; but these , I am sorry 
to say, are almost all I have to give towards elucidating their 
history. Birds, naturally thinly dispersed over a vast extent of 
country ; retiring during summer to the depth of the forests 
* The Red-tailed Buzzard is a species peculiar to America, and, in its adult 
state, seems perfectly known to ornithologists. The figure on the same plate, 
and next described by our author, has been subject to more discussion, and has 
been variously named. From the testimonies of Bonaparte and Audubon, it 
may, however, be certainly considered as the young or immature bird — an 
idea which Wilson himself entertained, and shewed by his mark of interrogation 
to the young, and the quotation of its synonyms. The figure at fig. 2, is the 
young in immature plumage, where the red tail has not yet appeared, and 
which is known to authors under the name of F. Leverianus. — Ed. 
