BIRDS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
131 
take aliment in the way described. I incorporate it, notwithstanding 
that it disagrees with certain good authority. 
Nest-building takes place from the first to the middle of May, and the 
four nests which I have found have all been located in high trees; three 
in hickory trees, the other in an oak. All of these nests were over fifty 
or sixty feet from the ground. The nest is very similar to that of the 
Cooper’s Hawk; it is made of sticks, twigs, leaves and rootlets, lined 
with feathers; one I found lined with bark. The complement of eggs 
is usually four, although three sometimes is the full set. The eggs are 
somewhat larger than those of the Cooper’s Hawk, with a dull white, 
grayish ground color, with brownish red spots, which vary in size from 
specks to large patches, frequently confluent. 
This hawk is generally easily captured, appearing quite tame and un¬ 
suspicious. I have always found it to be cowardly, and to evince no 
[ disposition to repel an invasion of its nest. 
It would seem, however, that the disposition of this bird, under cer¬ 
tain circumstances, is very variable. Mr. A. G. Boardman, of Maine, 
who has found several nests, and secured the eggs, finds it to be cour¬ 
ageous and spirited. A man whom he had employed to obtain a nest, 
was attacked with great fury, while ascending the tree; his cap was 
torn from his head, and he would have been seriously injured if the bird 
had not been shot. Another instance is mentioned by Dr. Wood, where 
this hawk attacked a boy climbing to her nest, fastened her talons in 
his arm, and could not be removed until beaten off and killed with a club. 
In speaking of this bird, Dr. Wood says: “ Seldom, if ever, does it 
seize its prey on the wing, but secures it mostly on the ground, subsist¬ 
ing on frogs, snakes, mice and small birds, devouring the latter without 
removing the feathers. This hawk in its habits is not as neat in pre¬ 
paring its food as most of its genus; holding its prey with both feet, it 
tears and eats without much regard to cleanliness or feathers.” 
In twelve specimens examined by myself, four revealed mice; three, 
small birds; four, frogs; one, killed the 22d of May, 1882, was gorged 
with cray-fish, with which were traces of coleopterous insects (beetles). 
Genus ARCHIBUTEO Brehm. 
Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis (Gmel.). 
American Rough-legged Hawk; Black Hawk. 
Description. 
“Adult male and female : Too variable in plumage to be concisely described. In 
general, the whole plumage with dark brown or blackish and light brown, gray, or 
whitish, the lighter colors edging or barring the individual feathers; tendency to 
excess of the whitish on the head, and to the formation of a dark abdominal zone or 
area which may or may not include the tibhe ; usually a blackish anteorbital and 
