32 
U. S. P. R. R. EXP. AND SURVEYS-ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA. 
BUTEO INSIGN ATUS, Cassin.—Brown Hawk. 
Butco insignatus, Cassin’s Birds of Texas and California, p. 102 .—Ib. p. 198, pi. 31 .—Ib. Gen. Rep. IX, 23. 
I first remarked this species at the crossing of Graysonville ferry on tke San Joaquin river 
and continued to meet with it occasionally, until we had crossed Kern river. Owing to the 
lateness of the season, I was able to ascertain hut little regarding its propagation, the only 
nests which were found having been forsaken for some time previously by the young. These 
nests, composed externally of coarse sticks and lined with roots, were built in the topmost 
branches of oaks, which grow abundantly on the hanks of the large water courses. This bird, 
like the rest of its genus, appears sluggish in its habits, perching for hours in a quiescent state 
on some tall tree and permitting the hunter to approach without any signs of fear. This 
apparent stolidity, however, may be owing to the fact that it is seldom molested and has not 
yet learned to mistrust a gun, as do the birds of prey in more settled portions of the country. 
BUTEO ELEGANS, Cassin.—Western Red-shouldered Hawk. 
Butco elegans, Cassin, Pr. A. N. Sc. VII, 281.— Ib. Gen. Rep. IX, 28. 
Abundant, and extending from northern California to the edge of the Colorado desert. 
BUTEO MONTANUS, Nutt.—Western Red Tail. 
Buteo montanus, Nctt. Man. I, 1840, 112.— Ib. Cassin, Gen. Rep. IX, 26. 
Abundant in northern California, and rare in no part of the country. I met with this bird 
likewise in New Mexico and Texas. 
ARCHIBUTEO FERRUGINEUS, Licht.—The Western Rough-legged Buzzard. 
Butco ferrugincus, Licht. Trans. Berlin Acad. 1838, p. 428. 
Archibuteo ferrugineus, Cassin's B. of Tex. and Cal. p. 159, pi. 26 .—Ib. Gen. Rep. IX, 34. 
Archibuteo regalis, Gray, Genera of Birds, vol. I, pi. 6. 
During a previous visit to California I found this species in the valley of the Sacramento, and 
had considered it rare in that section of country ; hut during the recent survey in the southern 
part of the State I found it very abundant, having seen on one occasion in the mountains, about 
sixty miles from San Diego, five or six of these birds at the same moment. It is there much 
more numerous than the Buteo borealis. Large tracts of land in the southern portion of the 
State being totally destitute of trees, this bird alights on the ground, or, taking a position on 
some slightly elevated tuft of grass or stone, will sit patiently for hours watching for its prey. 
Its food, on dissection, proved to consist of mice, ground squirrels, and other small animals. 
In plumage it appears to vary as much as its closely allied species, Archibuteo sancti-johannis, 
(Gmelin ;) and in a specimen shot by one of the men, hut so badly mutilated that it could not 
he prepared, the tail was strongly tinged with the red color peculiar to the Buteo borealis. I 
several times noticed a bird sailing over the prairies, of about the same size as this species, hut 
entirely black and of heavy continuous flight. It was, I think, of this genus ; but never having 
procured one, I am undecided whether it be the adult bird of the species under consideration 
(the A. sancti-johannis ) or a new bird to be added to this group. I discovered in 1851, on the 
Cosumnes river, the eggs and nest of this bird. While climbing a tree to examine some 
magpies’ nests, the hawk in flying from her own betrayed her retreat. It was placed in the 
