Broad-winged Hawk. 
( Buteo pennsylvanicus.) 
Accompanied by my friends, A. H. Bur- 
rington and R. C. Ashworth, I started out 
April 14 for a walk. Thinking there might 
be a new bird in the undergrowth we made 
off in that direction. Just before we came 
to the thicket we had to pass through a 
piece of hard and soft wood timber, so we 
looked about to see if there were any nests 
of the common Crow, ( Oorvus america- 
nus), in progress of building. We had 
nearly reached the thicket when I espied a 
nest in a hemlock, and as it looked fresh 
told my companions I would go up to it. 
I started up the tree, but had not rapped 
it many times when I caught sight of a 
Hawk flying from it. Just then a ringing 
hurrah came from the foot of the tree 
where my friends had seated themselves 
to await my return. I got up to the nest 
as soon as possible and to my delight 
found three eggs. Now the next thing was 
how to get them safely down. I finally 
tied them up in my handkerchief and 
started down the tree. I got down safely 
and then we hid behind trees to watch the 
parent birds, which were soaring about 
high in the air. At last one of them came 
down from its lofty watching place and 
alighted on a tree near the nest, then the 
other perched itself near its mate, offering 
a fine view to us. 
The nest was composed of sticks of a 
little larger size than those used by the 
common crow, lined with the bark of grape 
vines and moss ; it was but slightly hol- 
lowed. Height about forty feet from the 
ground. The eggs are of a dirty white 
color, marked with spots and blotches of 
lilac — F. M. Goodwin, Hartland, Vt. 
O 
to 
O 
M 
t> 
a 
KJ 
h - ‘ 
Co 
CD 
-a 
neck. In the huge extinct species it was also 
no clo.ubt strong and muscular, as figured in 
the article by Dr. Shufeldelt in the Century 
magazine. But the Terns capturing their prey 
from aboV the watery element by a well aimed 
dash, had li'o need of such an extent of material 
in the neck, Wd hence the ancestral type of 
vertebra remained less modified in them. 
The above considerations seem to me to pre- 
clude any strictly consecutive arrangement of 
birds into classes^ ’"SJany have doubtless met 
| with the same difficult^hat I encountered long 
ago when eer|am familiek do all I could, would 
seem to arrange themselvMjn parallel lines. 
If the ^Considerations which I am discussing 
are sufficiently tenable to forni. the basis for a 
good theory, the parallel or gradual diverge- 
ment^and consequent system of classification, 
| vviUrbe the more correct one. 
Eggs of the Broad-winged Hawk. 
by j. p. N. 
The size of the eggs of this species, ( Buteo 
pennsylvanicus) has often been incorrectly given 
by writers. It is almost always stated to be 
larger than a series of eggs of this hawk would 
| seem to indicate — thus leading to the suspicion 
; that the eggs described were not really those of 
Buteo pennsylvanicus, but probably often those 
of Buteo lineatus. 
Audubon does not give measurements of the 
! eggs of this species, but says that they “are 
i four or five, of a dull grayish-white, blotched 
with dark brown.” Experience seems to prove 
•' that they are but rarely four and never five. 
Dr. Brewer, in his North American Oology , 
! thought that three eggs were the usual num- 
1 ber for this bird, and gave the size of three 
| single eggs in his cabinet, collected in Penn- 
[ sylvania, Vermont and New Jersey, as follows : 
2 1-16x1 9-10; 1 15-lGxl 8-16; and 1 14-16x18-16 
inches. He figured three eggs in Plate I. of 
’ his work, collected in New Jersey, Pennsylva- 
nia and Florida. Measuring these illustrations 
j with calipers gives this result : Figure 8, (from 
j New Jersey,) 1.99x1.55; Figure 9, (from Penn- 
| sylvania,) 2.06x1.58; Figure 10, (from Florida), 
J 2. 08x1.63 inches . __ 
Samuels (in his Ornithology and Oology of 
j New England) relates that he found a nest of 
ij this (?) species on May 20, 1864, in West Rox- 
j bury, Mass., that contained four eggs. He 
I gives their measurements as varying from 2.00 
I xl.70 to 2.15x1.72 inches. Their color was “a 
2-No. 1 
d obtained 
j. Museum, 
P OF 
ruxiON. 
:th , 1886. 
>v. number 
ne so now, 
he Missis- 
tined from 
inquestion- 
ur of these 
resume the 
;her colleo- 
;t,es, a dull 
plutely un- 
jer than in 
arsh Hawk, 
f time they 
^ happen to 
cannot give 
e taken re- 
ill on Trout 
Survey, in 
arthy; and 
iken by Dr. 
(ensuring as 
)xl.32; and 
e is in the 
(description 
Ind I should 
aim for the 
en. 
j occasional 
potted, just 
vk, but as a 
