HAWKS, EAGLES, AND KITES 
297 
ceous-buff, fading to whitish on the inner web, with broken bars of fuscous; 
lesser wing-coverts conspicuously margined with rufous or rufous-chestnut; 
tail dark grayish brown, indistinctly barred with fuscous, and on the basal 
half with more or less rufous, the inner webs of the feathers with sometimes 
white bars; underparts white or whitish, streaked or spotted with black or 
blackish, the legs sometimes barred with rufous. c?L., 18"30; W., 12*50; 
T., 8*00; B. from N., *75. 9 L., 20*35; W., 13*50; T., 9*00. 
Remarks . — Adults of this species may always be known by the rich rufous 
lesser wing-coverts. Immature birds are sometimes confused with the young 
of the Red-tailed or Broad-winged Hawks. From the former they may be 
distinguished by their small size, rufous margins of the lesser wing-coverts 
Fig. 87. Four-notched primaries of Red-shouldered Hawk. (Reduced.) 
ochraceous-buff markings on the primaries, and the continuously streaked 
underparts; from the latter they differ in having four instead of three outer 
primaries “notched,” in being larger, and in having ochraceous-buff on the 
primaries. 
Range. — E. N. A. Breeds from Man., s. Keewatin, s. Que., N. S., and 
Prince Edward Is. s. nearly to the Gulf States and w. to edge of the Great 
Plains; winters s. to the Gulf coast. 
Washington, common P. R. _ Ossining, common P. R. Cambridge, 
common, Apl. -Nov., less common in winter. N. Ohio, common P. R. Glen 
Ellyn, P. R., more common than the Red-tail; chiefly T. V. 
Nest, in trees, 30-60 feet up. Eggs, 3-5, dull white, generally more or 
less sprinkled, spotted, or blotched with cinnamon-brown or chocolate, 
2*15 x 1*65. Date, Iredell Co., N. C., Mch. 26; New London, Conn., Apl. 3; 
Cambridge, Apl. 10. 
The present species and the Red-tailed Hawk are the birds to which 
the names Chicken Hawk and Hen Hawk are most frequently misap- 
plied. Being both common species whose habits render them easily 
observed, they are often unjustly made to suffer for the sins of their 
bird-killing relatives of the genera Accipiter and Astur. 
The farmer sees a Hawk sailing in wide circles above him, uttering 
its fierce, screaming cry of kee-you, kee-you. While he is watching it 
a sly, low-flying Accipiter slips by him and makes a sudden dash into 
the poultry yard. The farmer does not discriminate; a Hawk is a 
Hawk, and shaking his fist at the bird in the air, he vows vengeance 
at the first opportunity. 
The Red-shouldered Hawk is at most times of the year a bird of 
the woods. Particularly does it like low woods watered with small 
streams from which it can obtain its favorite food of frogs. Its note 
is one of the common sounds of summer, and can be heard when the 
bird is almost lost to sight far up in the sky. It is frequently imitated 
by the Blue Jay. 
