Rachitis in Young Red-shouldered Hawks. — May 26, 1900, Mr. 
A. H. Verrill informed me that he had that morning taken four downy 
young Red-shouldered Hawks ( Buteo Itneatus) from a nest near New 
Haven, wishing to raise them for photographic purposes. He fed them 
on butcher’s meat, and they grew in size and weight, and juvenal plumage 
soon began to show. May 31 one was so weak that it was put to death, 
and the others seemed out-of-sorts, though gaining in size and plumage. 
They were unable to lift themselves to their feet, and seemed to suffer 
pain when handled. Their characteristic attitude was with the feet thrust 
forward. These symptoms increased and on June 11 two died. 
In preparing them for specimens I found they showed well-marked evi- 
dence of rickets. Subcutaneous fat was present in large amounts, but the 
muscles were flabby and anzemic and the ligaments lax. The epiphysial 
cartilage was somewhat enlarged, the long bones deformed and unusually 
soft and flexible, and the tibiae of both birds showed subperiosteal frac- 
tures at the point where the weight of the body would come when seated. 
Doubtless their attempts at standing aided in causing these fractures. 
As Mr. Verrill and I were at this time collecting in western Connecti- 
cut, I suggested giving the surviving hawk bird-bodies as a change in 
diet, thinking that possibly these young birds had been unable to assimi- 
late the lime necessary for calcification of the bones from meat alone. 
Under this treatment the surviving bird improved somewhat, but died on 
June 15, showing on dissection a condition similar to the others. 
As a young Red-shouldered Hawk, which some years ago I fed on meat, 
died showing similar symptoms, and later nine young Ferruginous Rough- 
legs flourished on a diet of bird and mammal bodies, it seems probable that 
these birds require bone in their food to attain healthy growth, especially 
as it is known that young mammals will die of rickets if fed from birth on 
meat alone. — Louis B. Bishop, M. D., New Haven , Conn. 
Auk, XVIII, April., 1901, p f- 
