BUTEO SWA1NS0M. 
313 
opportunity occurred. These winter sojourners were also very wild, while on the other 
hand, the small southerners were very tame, allowing one to approach within a few yards 
of them; in fact, upon a certain occasion, one alighted on a low tree within a few feet of 
me and gazed at me fearlessly while I walked slowly past. 
Like the Red-tailed, these Hawks are accustomed to circle about, high in air, watch¬ 
ing for their prey; at such times, both species resemble each other somewhat, as they both 
have the same general movements, but the Red-shouldered may be distinguished, even 
when at a long distance, by the form, for they are shorter in proportion to the spread of 
wing, than the allied species. To make it clearer, an imaginary circle drawn around the 
bird, touching the tips of the wings, would pass outside the tip of the tail, while with the 
Red-tailed, this line would pass through the terminal portion of the tail. 
When moving about as described, the Red-shouldered Hawks occasionally give vent 
to shrill screams which become louder and harsher when their nesting places are approached. 
When the male is paying court to the female, he utters a. peculiar chucking sound and is 
very assiduous in his attentions to her, offering her food and seldom leading her. Even 
when she is sitting, he not only provides her with all she wants to eat but, like nearly all 
other Hawks, shares the duties of incubation with her. When not otherwise engaged, he 
guards the vicinity of the nest vigilantly and, upon the approach of an intruder, gives no¬ 
tice to his mate, and she silently leaves the nest. I observed the Red-shouldered Hawks 
nesting in Florida early in February and obtained three young from a nest, built in a cy¬ 
press tree which stood in a small pond in the piney woods in the vicinity of Salt Lake. 
This was on the tenth of April and then the young were two or three weeks old, for the 
feathers were just starting. Judging from this instance, the eggs must be deposited about 
the first of March in the South. Further north, however, they breed a little later, from 
the first of April until May, the time of nesting being regulated, apparently, by the sea¬ 
son. According to my experience, these Hawks prefer deciduous trees which grow in . 
swampy land, in which to build, but I have occasionally taken the nest from pines. They 
do not select particularly large trees; in fact, I have more than once taken the eggs from 
nests, not over twenty feet from the ground; that, too, in woods where there was an abun¬ 
dance of trees of a much larger size. 
The Red-shouldered Hawks are only partly migratory, at least in Massachusetts and 
southward, for they remain with us all winter, frequenting the vicinity of meadows in 
which there are open springs, in order to feed upon the frogs which resort to such places 
during the cold season. 
BUTEO SWAINSONI. 
Swainson’s Hawk. 
Buteo Swainsoni Bon., List; 1838, 3. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Sp. Ch. Form, not very robust. Size, medium. Tarsus, feathered in front for less than half its length. Only three 
outer quills are incised on the inner webs. Sexes, not similar in color in the adult stage. 
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