310 
BUTEO HARLANI. 
large, straggling flocks at such an elevation as to he nearly invisible. They appear to fol¬ 
low river valleys in their course, avoiding the more elevated districts. Mr. Will Perham, 
to whom I am indebted for valuable facts relative to the movements of Hawks, captures 
many of these birds during the spring, often securing in a single season, more Red-tailed 
Hawks than a casual observer would suppose were to be found in the whole state; thus 
during two weeks in April, 1878, he took about three hundred of these fine birds and a 
number of other species. 
About the first week in May, the Red-tailed Hawks having become dispersed through¬ 
out the country, begin to breed. The nestis placed.on a high pine or other tree, in some 
secluded locality, often in a thick swamp. The young leave the nest by the first of July 
and soon after learn to forage for themselves. In hunting, these Hawks keep at a con¬ 
siderable height, sailing in circles with broadly extended wings; then, upon perceiving 
their prey, they will plunge obliquely downward and seize it. They capture rabbits, 
squirrels, Grouse, Ducks, and other wild game but are particularly fond of domestic fowls, 
visiting the farmer’s poultry-yard with such presistent regularity that they have received 
the name of Hen Hawk. When pressing onward in a straight line, the flight of the Red- 
tails is steady, the wings being moved regularly, but rather quickly. They remain north 
until late in October when they pass southward much as they come, but the flocks are 
not as large for the birds are more generally distributed and thus occupy a greater extent 
of country. 
BUTEO HARLANI. 
Harlan’s Hawk. 
Buleo Harlani Aud., Syn. Birds N. A.; 1839, 6. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, robust. Size, large. Tarsus, feathered in front for more than half its length. Four outer quills are 
incised on the inner webs. 
Color. Adult. General colors throughout, dark sooty-brown, with the wings, excepting tips of primaries, finely, but 
irregularly barred with ashy-brown and whitish. The tail is mottled with ashy-brown which becomes decidedly rufous 
next the shaft of the subterminal portions of the feathers. Below, the feathers of the flanks and under tail coverts are ob¬ 
scurely banded with ashy-brown. The basal two thirds of the feathers on head, neck all around, and breast to middle of 
body, are pure white. 
Young. Much browner than the above described, with the feathers edged with ashy; in fact, the whole bird is occa¬ 
sionally spotted with this latter named color. Iris, brown. Cere and feet, greenish. Bill, black. 
OBSERVATIONS. 
The description of the adult of this rare Hawk, is taken from a fine specimen, now in my possession, which was shot 
at Watsontown, Pennsylvania, on the thirtieth of March, 1875. The young stage is from a skin which I have seen in the 
collection of Mr. William Brewster, which came, I think, from Texas. Readily known from all stages of borealis , by the 
pure white on the base of the feathers of the anterior portions, and from other Hawks in the melanistic condition, by the 
feathering of the tarsus and incision of the quills. I had long suspected that the white of the basal portion of the feathers 
of the anterior parts, would, in some specimens, become extended so as to occupy nearly the whole of the feathers; thus I 
was not surprised when I learned from the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club for January, 1880, page 51, that 
Mr. Ridgway actually had a specimen in hand where the lower anterior portions were nearly white; but the white tail 
of this specimen, as described, was certainly unexpected. Distributed throughout Southern United States, north to Penn¬ 
sylvania, but is more common in Texas. 
