Nesting of the Broad-winged Hawk 
in Chester Co., Penn. 
BY THOMAS H. JACKSON, WEST CHESTER, PENN. 
Though of general distribution in the Middle 
| States, the Broad-winged Hawk ( Buteo pennsyl- 
vanicus ), seems to he nowhere abundant. In 
this part of Pennsylvania I think it may be 
considered a rare summer resident. For many 
years the woods of this county have been thor- 
oughly explored in the season when our Rap- 
tores are usually found nesting, and although 
the Red-tail and Cooper’s Hawks have always 
been found breeding more or less abundantly, 
but two or three authentic sets of the Broad- 
winged species have been taken. 
The first one to my knowledge was a nest 
containing two eggs, taken by Mr. J. T. Price, 
on May 24th, 1875, in a wood near the edge of 
West Chester. These eggs were of the ordinary 
type, and quite handsomely marked. 
Another nest of this species was found near 
Malvern in this county, on May, 1886. It con- 
tained a single egg, much incubated, and was 
positively identified, both birds having been 
shot at or near the nest. They had made their | 
home in this piece of woods near the village, 
a locality that did not afford the quiet and 
seclusion usually preferred by these birds. 
On May 31st, 1886, it was my good fortune 
to find my first and only nest of this species. 
I was exploring a wild tract of woodland and 
swamp, searching at the time for the nest of a 
pair of Kentucky Warblers ( Oporornis formosa), 
that seemed to bo home in this particular local- 
ity. The male warbler sat in an ash tree, sing- 
ing for hours, quite tame and apparently having 
a mate and nest in this vicinity. While exam- 
ining every tuft of grass, bush or clump of 
swamp cabbage in the neighborhood that might 
conceal the nest I so much desired to find, and 
moving in every widening circle around the 
tree, where the male sang undisturbed, my at- 
tention was quickly arrested by the shrill 
scream of a hawk — a noise resembling the 
grating of a large door upon its hinges. Look- 
ing up I saw the bird leaving a small nest about 
fifty yards away. It was about twenty feet 
from the ground, in a small black walnut, and 
so small and insignificant looking that had not 
the birds been seen so suspiciously near it I 
should not have troubled myself to climb to it. 
However, an easy ascent, without irons, soon 
revealed the precious contents — three exqui- 
sitely marked eggs of the Broad-winged Hawk. 
The nest was evidently an old one, probably 
constructed by Crows the previous spring. It 
sat deep in the hollow of a crotch formed by 
three limbs. The lining was composed of a 
scanty assortment of grasses, feathers and soft 
strips of bark. The eggs were advanced in in- 
cubation, the young having well developed 
feathers. I should think the eggs had been 
laid before May loth. The parent birds were 
not shy, but kept within sight most of the 
time I was there, uttering at frequent intervals 
their loud cries. They remained in the vicinity 
for some time; late in June I heard them in 
the same woods, but was unable to again find 
them nesting. 
The measurements of the eggs are as follows : 
2.00x1.62; 2.00x1.60, and 1.99x1.61 inches. 
In all of this set the ground is of a dull grayish 
white, though in two of them the markings are 
so general as to almost obscure the ground. 
No. 1 is heavily blotched with rich brown at 
the smaller end, running back to the middle. 
No. 2 is marked in a similar manner though the 
markings are finer and smoother, as though 
laid on with a brush and having run together. 
The coloration of No. 3 is of a very peculiar 
and handsome form. Almost the entire sur- 
face is obscured by a light brown evenly laid on, 
with here and there a few heavy blotches scat- 
tered over the surface. At no place does the 
true ground color appear, while some of the 
shadings run almost into a purple. 
The fact of having taken this set myself 
; may have unduly prejudiced me in their favor, 
but to my eye they are unequalled in point of 
beauty by the eggs of any Raptores I have ever 
! seen. 
XII. July 1 967 p. IPS - /<?/• 0 .^) 0 , 
Additional Notes on the Broad- 
■ Winged Hawk. 
BY GEO. G. CANTWELL, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 
It was with great interest that I read the ex- 
| cellent article of J. W. Preston’s in the February 
O. & O. on theBroad-Winged Hawk. His note's 
agree exactly with the habits of the bird in this 
vicinity, where it is quite common. 
As far as my experience goes, I have always 
! found the nest in the immediate vicinity of a 
lake or marsh, and never, as some say, “ in 
tall trees,’ the highest, 1 believe, was about 
thirty feet, and one was so low I removed the 
eggs while standing on the ground. On May 
15, 1886, I also took a set of four eggs slightly 
incubated, the eggs in this set were curiously 
1 "larked, one having very large bright blotches, 
two of the average type, while the other was 
destitute of spots of any kind. 
Here the favorite nesting is a small red oak, 
with a convenient crotch, formed by the spread- 
ing of the largest limbs, and never among the 
smaller ones as in the case of some hawks. 
Ihe collector does not have to reconnoitre 
around two or three hundred yards to get a shot 
j at a Broad Wing, but can walk deliberately up 
to within easy range and collect his bird. 
Last summer, one allowed me to approach so 
near him that I killed it with a stone from a 
i “ sling. - ’ They are beyond doubt the least sus- 
pecting of all our hawks. 
Here the lining of the nest is a mixture of 
fragments of bark and small buds and leaves. 
Nests found late in the season contain a large 
amount of green leaves, resembling a squirrel’s 
nest. As Mr. Preston says, I have on several 
occasions seen the birds gathering sticks from 
the ground for the nest. 
Let us hear from other localities on the hab- 
its of this hawk, it will surely be interesting, 
as the habits of a bird vary greatly according 
t0 ^locality. Q>&0> XIII. Jane. 1888 I 
