Red-shouldered Hawk

The Red-shouldered Hawk has reddish barring on the underparts, black and white mottling on the upperparts, reddish shoulders, and a black tail with narrow white bands. In flight, it shows translucent white patches near the wingtips.  Length: 17 in.  Wingspan: 40 in.

Sexes similar.

None.

Juveniles have brown streaking on the underparts and brownish upperparts.

Moist woodlands.

Small mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds.

Forages by hunting from a perch.

Resident across much of eastern North America and in parts of California. Present only in the breeding season in the northeastern U.S. and southeastern Canada.

Red-shouldered hawks are very vocal during courtship and territory establishment.

Red-shouldered Hawk diets can vary considerably, depending on the abundance of local prey.

A series of loud, harsh “kee-ahh” notes  is given.

The nest is a platform of sticks and green leaves placed in a tree.

 – Number: 3-4.
– Color: Pale bluish-white with darker markings.

Incubation and fledging: 
– Young hatch at 33 days.
– Young fledge (leave the nest) in 35-42 days after hatching but remain with the adults for some time.

Published by the Smithsonian Institution between the 1920s and the 1950s, the Bent life history series of monographs provide an often colorful description of the birds of North America. Arthur Cleveland Bent was the lead author for the series. The Bent series is a great resource and often includes quotes from early American Ornithologists, including Audubon, Townsend, Wilson, Sutton and many others.

Bent Life History for the Red-shouldered Hawk – the common name and sub-species reflect the nomenclature in use at the time the description was written.

The well-known red-shouldered hawk, with its various races, is widely distributed throughout the eastern and southern portions of the United States and southern Canada, wherever it can find suitable environment in well-watered woodlands scattered through open country, even in quite thickly settled farming country, or in wooded river bottoms. In such localities it is generally the best known and commonest hawk. It is less common than the broading in extensive heavily forested regions and less common than the redtail in the open country of the Middle West. It is very rare, or practically unknown, on the western prairies and arid plains, or in the northern coniferous forests. The northern form ranges, as a breeding bird, west to the eastern edge of the Great Plains and south to North Carolina.

Spring: Although the red-shouldered hawk has been called the “winter hawk”, it hardly deserves that name in New England, where it is much less hardy than the red-tailed hawk and is seldom seen in winter. In the northern portions of its breeding range it is mainly migratory, though it is usually listed as a permanent resident. C. J. Pennock tells me that a specimen taken as late as February 14 in Charlotte County, Fla., was referred to this form. Dr. Winsor M. Tyler’s notes give the average date of arrival in Lexington, Mass., over a period of 20 years as March 16, the earliest being March 3 and the latest March 30. My dates are somewhat earlier, as I have found them working on their nests, in Bristol County, as early as March 5. Dr. Tyler has sent me the following notes on a migratory movement he observed on March 22, 1911, at Lexington:

This morning we saw three or four red-shouldered hawks circling at no great height. We soon lost sight of them off toward the north. Later, about noon, a single bird flew in great circles overhead, making good progress, although intermittently, in a northerly direction. A few minutes later another bird flew over in a similar manner, screaming as he passed along. Then we saw three others: two a little behind the first, and one very high above him: all four circling on outspread wings: the tail wide-open like a fan. The birds cut great circles in the air, or rather, as they passed northward, they described immense loops, and each circuit carried them farther away toward the north. Sometimes one would lead, or would appear from the ground to do so, then 4 as he swung southward he would appear larger again until he turned first eastward and then northward. Then as he moved away, we lost him in the distance.

As we watched the four birds circling together a fifth joined them. His wings were bent back at the shoulder, and his tail was shut and he sailed in this position, slanting downward, I think, moving rapidly toward the others. Upon overtaking them he spread his wings and tall to their utmost extent and continued with the other birds in their great slow circles. The fifth bird shot out from just under the sun and holding a straight course, passed over our heads. On this day and at this hour (noon) the sun is directly south; hence the route of the six birds was astronomically due north.

Courtship: One of the delights of early spring, on one of the first balmy days of March, when the genial warmth of the advancing sun is thawing out the hibernating butterflies, the early wild flowers are showing signs of new life, and the first hylas are peeping in the marshy pools, is to walk through the now leafless woods, breathe the fresh fragrance of awakening spring, watch for the early migrating birds, and listen for the courtship cries of our favorite hawks, old friends of many years’ standing. The blue jays can closely imitate their cries, but there is a difference we can recognize. And soon we see them soaring in the air in great circles high above the same old woods where they have nested for many years. We believe that they are mated for life, and we like to think that this is the same old pair that we have known so long. But probably it is only the continuation of a pair, for if one of a pair is killed, the survivor promptly brings a new mate into the territory, or feudal domain of the pair. These hawks are very noisy and conspicuous at this season, in marked contrast with their behavior at other seasons.

Their loud, wild cries of kee-ak, kee-ah are frequently repeated as they circle overhead, their wings and tails broadly extended and stiffly held with only slight adjustments. Frequently they swing near each other and then far apart, or, mounting high in the air, one may make a thrilling dive downward toward the other. These evolutions are indulged in every year, even by mated pairs, and constitute, I believe, their principal courtship display. Dr. rryler tells me that he has seen four birds thus engaged, perhaps in a spirit of rivalry, or perhaps merely in play, as an outlet for surplus energy. Lewis 0. Shelley has sent me the following account of a courtship performance:

On March 24, 1930, while crossing a back-lying mowing between two plots ef woodland, a red-shouldered hawk was seen to come from the west and begin to mount higher by spiraling, until it had gained an altitude of about 1,000 feet, screaming the common kce-you, kce-you note every little while, usually on the outer swoop for the next vault in the rise. At the zenith of Its flight the calls were loudest, two-syllahied screams.

Just at this time another hawk, the female, came from the west, crossed SO feet overhead, and alighted in a hare oak 200 yards away at the edge of the woodland. The male had evidently been watching the female’s approach, as, several moments before I knew of her presence, he began shooting downward with swift lunges for several hundred feet at once, checking the rush and sweeping a wide spiral before again dropping down. No sooner had the female alighted than the male, from a height of at least 200 feet, made a last rapid drop that landed him on the female’s hack. Just the second before this contact she had spread her wings and crouched down close to the branch and crosswise of it. Copulation was immediate, occupying about SO seconds. Then the male hopped along the branch and they sat facing opposite directions, immovable, a foot or so apart, for 10 minutes. At the end of this period, the male launched forth and flexv back toward the ~vest, where he proceeded to climb beyond the range of the naked eye. Soon after he left the oak, the female followed, hut did not go micar his location.

Nesting: Our experience with the nesting habits of the redshouldered hawk in southeastern Massachusetts has been quite extensive, covering a period of 50 years. I find in my notes the records of 173 nests that I have examined personally; if I include the nests examined by my field companions, F. H. Carpenter and C. S. Day, the list would run up to noarly 250. This is not, however, a remarkable record, for my correspondence with others in the Northeastern States shows that many of them have found these hawks equally coInmon. Nearly all collectivns have big series of the eggs of this hawk, which speaks well for its popularity. I shall neVer forget the thrill I experienced when I found my first hawk’s nest and how I prized those handsome eggs! I have never forgotten what Henry D. Minot (1877) wrote in one of my earliest bird books: “Size has always a fascination for the world. ‘V he young collector prizes a hawk’s egg more than that of the rarest warbler. The egg is big, the bird that laid it is big, the nest in which it was laid is big, the tree in which the nest wa~ built is big, and the wood in which the tree grows is big.” And I have never quite lost that thrill. As I walk down the old familiar cart path into the well-known woods, the home of many generations of Buteos, I am filled with keen expectancy; the warning cry of the hawks is heard, and I am soon gazing at a well-feathered nest in a lofty crotch. Perhaps the bird has already flown, or perhaps a blow on the tree trunk will send her sailing off through the woods. Sometimes she may return to circle overhead and scream defiance, but oftener not.

The outstanding feature of our experience with the red-shouldered hawk has been the constancy with which each pair, or its continuation, has clung to its chosen territory, in spite of the annual robbing of its nest and the cutting down of one portion after another of its woodland home. As long as there are any trees suitable for nesting purposes the hawks will remain in the vicinity. We have had under observation at various times over 30 pairs of these hawks within a radius of 15 miles of my home. ‘We have not had time to visit all these pairs every year but have located as many as 22 pairs in a season as recently as 1922. There has been a marked decrease during the past 10 years. To illustrate the continuity and permanency of localized pairs, I submit brief histories of four of our oldest pairs.

The “chestnut hill” pair was first located in 1882 in an extensive tract of magnificent chestnut timber, where trees 4 feet in diameter at the base and 60 feet to the first limb were not uncommon. The hawks nested in this section for 8 years until extensive cutting of the big timber forced them to move into an adjacent tract of swampy woods. Meantime one of the hawks was shot by my companion, but the survivor secured a new mate and occupied the same old nest the following year. After that the hawks were forced to move every few years, until the last of the woods were cut off. The last nest of this pair was found in 1922, a lapse of 41 years, during which we actually found the nest 20 times.

The most continuous record is that of the “reservoir ~ pair. From 1882 to 1907, inclusive, we found the nest every year, an unbroken record of 26 years. From that time on our records were more irregular, as more or less cutting was done in various parts of the woods, until the last nest was found in 1923, after a lapse of 42 years, during which we found the nest 31 times. In 1924 this last nest was occupied by a pair of barred owls, and in 1928 we found red-tailed hawks had appropriated the same old nest (see pl. 44). The woods have been nearly ruined since then, and no hawks have nested there.

The history of the “Goff’s woods” pair is similar, but there are more breaks in the record. It also began in 1882, and the last nest was fonod in 1926, a lapse of 45 years, during which time the nest was found 29 times. The hawks were seen or heard in the woods for two years longer, but in 1930 a pair of red-tailed hawks moved in and that ended the record of this pair.

The “Dighton big woods” pair has shown the longest record, a lapse of 47 years, but its early history is much broken and we have actually found the nest only 15 times. We found the first nest in 1886 and for 4 years in succession. The main tract of heavy chestnut and oak timber was cut soon after that, so we did not hunt the locality again until 1909. From that time on we found them, whenever we hunted for them, in an adjoining tract of oak woods that was growing up to respectable size. Here we found them every year for the 8 years, 1927 to 1934, and we hope they will continue to nest there. I believe that all these pairs, or their successors, have nested continually in all these localities. The breaks in our records are mainly due to our failure to visit all the localities every year, though in many cases there has been much shifting about, due to extensive cutting in different parts of the woods. My field companion, Mr. Day, has the records of two pairs, near Boston, for 37 years each, and the “Weld farm” pair, which he found from 1909 to 1923, is said to have nested in that tract as far back as 1872. Fred H. Kennard (1894a) gives an interesting 10-year history of four pairs of hawks in Brookline, Mass., and vicinity, including the Weld farm pair, which is well worth reading.

I have already explained the distributions of the red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks in southeastern Massachusetts under the former species, the latter being much commoner in what I call the hardwood region. Here the red-shouldered hawk shows no very decided preference for any particular species of tree, but usually selects one of large size. Of 177 nests in the hardwood region 49 were in chestnuts, 46 in red oaks, 26 in white pines (usually scattered among the hardwoods), 19 in white oaks, 15 in swamp white oaks, 13 in scarlet oaks, 8 in maples, and 1 in an ash. Certain pairs seem to prefer to nest in pines, even where suitable hardwoods are available. Of 41 nests in the white-pine region, 31 were in pines, 4 each in beeches and red oaks, and 1 each in a maple and a chestnut. The heights from the ground varied from 20 to 60 feet; 27 were 30 feet or less, 36 were 50 feet or more, and a majority were between 35 and 45 feet. Very few of the nests were actually in swampy woods, although many were in the dry parts of woods near swamps or streams; but some were in high, dry woods, far from any water.

In a hardwood tree the nest is usually placed in the main fork of three or more branches, seldom on horizontal bzanches against the trunk and very rarely in the fork of a branch. In a pine tree it is almost invariably on three or more branches against the trunk. Mr. Day once found a nest a foot out from the trunk of a pine in a cluster of twigs and small branches, a very unusual and insecure location; but the same nest was used again 10 years later! This same pair once built in a red cedar.

The nest of the red-shouldered hawk is usually well and firmly built and securely placed on a solid foundation, so that it lasts for a number of years. I believe the hawks prefer to build a new nest each year, as they usually do so; occasionally we have found them using the same nest for two, or even three, years in succession; oftener they return to the old nest after a lapse of two or more years. Whether the nest is robbed makes very little (lifference; I have known a pair to raise a brood successfully for three years in succession in the same nest and then abandon it the next year for no apparent. cause. On the other band, I have known a pair to use the same nest three years in succession, including a second set one season, although the eggs were taken each year. Occasionally redshouldered hawks use nests built by other species; I have never found them using an old crow’s nest, but they sometimes alternate with barred owls; we have three times found them using old nests of Cooper’s hawks, and they often build over old squirrels’ nests; in four cases we have seen a gray squirrel run out from the lower portion of an occupied hawk’s nest. Probably the hawks seldom molest these large squirrels; once we found the hawk’s eggs broken, for which the squirrels may have been to blame.

About the first week in March, in a normal season, our red-shouldered hawks begin repairing their old nests, or building new ones, about a month or more before the first eggs are laid. If an old nest is to be used it is plainly marked thus early in the season with a fresh sprig of pine, hemlock, or cedar, as a sign that the owner has claimed possession. Nest building is a deliberate process, lasting four or five weeks, and sometimes nests are built that are never used. One pair, or possibly an unmated bird, has for several years built a nest that was not used; one year they built two nests, using material from the first, which was a fine large nest, to build the second, a quite inferior nest; although I flushed the bird off this second nest, no eggs were ever laid in it.

The nest of the red-shouldered hawk is usually recognizable as a substantial, well-built structure, filling the crotch to a considerable depth and rather flat on top. It is usually smaller than a redtail’s nest, which it resembles otherwise, but it differs from the nests of ~he Aecipiters in containing much more soft material, and it is larger than the carelessly built nest of the broadwing. It is usually well decorated with bits of white down, which increases as incubation progresses; more or less down is also scattered about in the woods near the nest. The nest is made of whatever small sticks or twigs are easily available, mixed with strips of inner bark, dry leaves, usnea, mosses, lichens, twigs of evergreens with needles, and other light materials; the inner cavity is neatly lined with finer shreds of inner bark, softer mosses or lichens, and fresh sprigs of pine, cedar, or hemlock, producing a pretty effect, with a sprinkling of white down from the hawk’s breast. The nests vary considerably in size; an average nest would measure about 24 by 18 inches in outside diameter, the inner cavity about. 8 inches in diameter and 2 or 3 inches deep, and the height, or thickness, 8 to 12 inches. The largest nest that I have measured was 36 inches in longest diameter, 18 inches high, and hollowed to a depth of 6 inches; the smallest measured only 16 by 14 inches in diameter, 7 inches high, and hollowed only 2 inches. Dr. Harry C. Oberholser (1896) gives the measurements of 10 Ohio nests; they exceed my average in size but not my largest except in height; two of his nests were 27 and 28 inches high.

Our experience is that the red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks never nest near together and that the same is true of the Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks, these being two pairs of competitive and antagonistic species; we have, however, occasionally found one of the Buteos nesting in the same woods with one of the Accipiters. But Dr. William L. Ralph (Bendire, 1892) says: “I have known the Red-tailed and Red-shouldered Hawks and the Great Horned Owl to nest near one another in a small wood, and on one occasion I found a pair of each of the Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s, and Redshouldered Hawks, and of the Long-eared Owl breeding so near together that I could stand beside the nest of a Ruffed Grouse, which was close by also, and throw a stone to any of the others.”

I have always considered tihe red-shouldered hawk and the barred owl as tolerant, complementary species, frequenting similar haunts and living on similar food, one hunting the territory by day and the other by night. We often find them in the same woods and using the same nests alternately, occasionally both laying eggs in the same nest the same season, resulting in a mixed set of eggs en which one or both species may incubate. Walter A. Goelitz (1916) has described and photographed a tree containing nests of both hawk and owl within a few feet of each other.

Some slight differences aie noticeable in nesting habits in different parts of the country. The choice of a tree depends on the type of heavy timber prevailing, as the hawks choose whatever large trees are available. In New York State, Dr. Ralph (Bendire, 1892) says that they nest iii birch, ash, maple, and beech trees, with a preference for the first two. William A. and George MI. Smith have sent me data on 45 New York nests; of these, 26 were in beeches, 12 in maples, 3 in ashes, 2 in basswoods, and 1 each in an oak and a hemlock.

I have never found fresh green leaves of deciduous trees or plants in a nest until after the eggs had hatched, but it seems to be a commoner practice elsewhere. J. Claire Wood (1906) says that a. majority of the nests found in Michigan are so decorated after the eggs are advanced in incubation, and that “a nest found in Genesee county on April 12, 1903, containing three fresh eggs, presented a beautiful green interior the hollow being lined with ‘boxberry’ leaves and the surrounding platform concealed beneath a profusion of spruce twigs with their covering of green needles. Not only are the leaves of various trees used but entire plants of such as night shade and violet. Have found the latter so fresh that the adhering flowers had not commenced to droop.”

S. F. Rathbun writes to me that he has found nests lined with “the dry blades from cornstalks and the dried webs of the tent-caterpillar’s retreat.” He thinks that the green sprigs of hemlock, so often found in nests, are usually picked up from the ground after having been blown off the trees. He has noticed that this material was used freely when windy weather prevailed during the nest building period and was sometimes lacking during very calm seasons. The use of green lining is, in my opinion, for sanitary rather than ornamental purl)oses.

Eggs: The ordinary set of the northern red-shouldered hawk consists of three or four eggs; sets of three are much commoner than four, only about one set in three or four consists of four eggs. Sets of five are very rare; I have taken only one and heard of only two others in my home territory. Bendire (1892) records two sets of six. The eggs are the usual hawk shape, ovate to rounded-ovate or oval. The shell is smooth but without gloss until much worn by incubation. The ground color is dull white or pale bluish white, sometimes clear white when fresh, but often much nest stained. They are perhaps the handsomest of the eggs of the Buteos and show an almost endless variety of types and colors of markings. Some are boldly and irregularly marked with great blotches of “warm sepia”, “bay”, “chestnut”, “auburn”, “amber brown”, “tawny”, “russet~~, or “ochraceous-tawny”; sometimes two or three shades of light and dark browns appear on the same egg; some are spotted or blotched with various shades of “purple-drab” or “ecru-drab”, with or without overlying spots of the different browns; sometimes any of these colors are splashed longitudinally at one end. Some eggs are more evenly covered with small spots or fine dots of any of the above colors. Some are very sparingly marked, but wholly immaculate eggs are very rare. The measurements of 50 eggs in the average 54.7 by 43.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 59 by 47, 51 by 41, and 53 by 40 millimeters.

Young: The period of incubation is about 28 days, and it is shared by both sexes. I have seen the pair change places on the nest; the male comes flying low through the woods, screaming, and alights on the edge of the nest with an upward glide; the female rises up in the nest (sexes assumed) and flies away, and the male settles on the eggs aL once. The male also feeds the female while she is incubating. Once, after I had been watching a bird on a nest for over an hour, her mate flew up, bringing a mouse in his bill; he stood beside her on the nest, gave her the mouse, and then quickly flew away; she rose up off the eggs, stood on the side of the nest, and ate the mouse, pull]ng it to pieces and swallowing it in small bits; this took about five minutes, after which she settled down on the eggs as before. I have also seen a hawk come to a nest, where his mate was incubating, leave food on the nest, and fly away, after which she stood up and ate the food. I have spent many hours in a blind watching hawks at their nests. The blind must be xvell hidden and offer perfect concealment; a brush blind is useless, as their eyesight is very keen; they will detect the slightest movement, leave the nest at once, and will not return to it if they know that they are watched. Much of the time while incubating the hawk is alert, with head raised and constantly looking about; at such times she will fly if anyone approaches the tree; at other times I have seen the same bird apparently asleep on the nest, with her head invisible, when I could walk up and pound the tree before she would leave. Once a hawk that I had been watching for some time rose up and stood on the edge of the nest for 10 minutes, looking around, then settled down on the eggs and went to sleep; I had to pound the tree to make her fly.

On May 20, 1932, I saw the whole process of feeding a brood of three young; they were about one-third grown but still all downy; they were very lively, constantly moving about, voiding their excrement over the edge of the nest, and looking up into the sky, apparently hungry. At 9.55 a. m. a hawk flew over screaming but did not come to the nest, and at 10.15 t.he same thing happened again, the young watching eagerly. At 10.30 a hawk came to the nest, apparently left some food and flew right away; about 10 minutes later this happened again. The young made no attempt to eat the food. At 11 a. m. the female, presumably, alighted on the edge of the nest and proceeded to feed the young; she tore the food (I could not see what it was) into small bits and fed the three young as nearly in succession as she could; they took the pieces from her bill, and she swallowed a piece occasionally herself. Competition was keen, and in the struggle the largest one got more than its share, taking several pieces in succession; when it had enough it turned its back on its mother and moved over to the other side of the nest., facing out, with its crop much distended. She continued feeding the others until the second and finally the third turned away satisfied. ‘When all their crops were stuffed full, she stood on the nest watching them for a few minutes and then flew to a nearby tree. The feeding process required about 20 minutes. Evidently they are fully fed, with all they can hold, at very infrequent intervals, for often I have watched a nest for an hour or two without any results.

For the first week or so the small downy young are quite inactive, lying quietly in the nest, but when about 10 days old they begin to sit up and move around. As the eggs are laid at intervals of two or three days, and as incubation usually begins before the set is complete, there is generally quite a difference in the sizes of the young. When about two weeks old the plumage begins to appear and the young from that time on become more and more active. My young friend Robert W. Harding watched a nest of young hawks one day from 10.10 a. m. until 12.30 p. m. and recorded happenings for me; they were never still for 10 minutes and generally not for more than one or two; they were constantly standing up, lying down, flapping wings, preening their budding plumage, frequently screaming, and occasionally squirting their excrement far over the edge of the nest; the ground and bushes under the tree looked as if sprinkled with whitewash; twice, at intervals of about an hour, one of the old birds brought in food, once a frog and once a small snake. ‘When about five or six weeks old the young are nearly fully fledged and ready to leave the nest. They begin by climbing out on the branches and. perhaps, returning to the nest at night. But they soon learn to flutter down to the ground or flap awkwardly through the woods. They are guarded and fed by their parents for some time after they leave the nest, until they learn to shift for themselves. That the nestlings are well fed is shown by the following full meal found in the crop and stomach of a young hawk taken by F. Seymour Hersey (1923) “A garter snake fifteen inches long; the head and about four inches of another snake of similar size; both hind legs of two frogs of good size; several small pieces of flesh probably of these frogs; a small turtle about the size of a silver dollar; three legs and the bill of Ruffed Grouse chicks; a large quantity of mouse hair mixed with green leaves.”

Only one brood is raised in a season, but, if the first set of eggs is taken, a second set will be laid, usually in another nest, about three or four weeks later. Occasionally, if necessary, a third attempt is made.

Lewis 0. Shelley sends me the following note on two young redshouldered hawks that were taken from the nest when about three weeks old and mounted: “When the young hawks were being skinned both birds were found to have the ears affected with maggots; 20 were collected from the four ears and preserved; the maggots were similar to Protocalipltora larvae commonly infesting bluebird and tree-swallow boxes and rarely Some nests such as the phoebe. These maggots had eaten about the ears not only to disfigure the outer ear cavity, leaving the marks of their attacks so that they are preserved in the mounted specimens, but had completely destroyed both ear drums of both birds. It is to be wondered how long these young hawks would have survived had they lived to reach maturity.”

Plumages: The small downy young is thickly covered with long, soft, silky down, longest on the head, yellowish white above, tinged with “vinaceous-buff” on the back and wings, and whiter below. This is succeeded by a dense covering of short, thick, woolly down, thickest on the belly, where it is pure white, and grayish white above. The wing quills are the first to sprout, when the young bird is about two weeks old, followed by the scapulars, wing coverts, and then the contour plumage. The back is fully feathered first, then the sides of the breast. The head, center of the breast. and thighs show the last of the down. This has all been worked out in detail, from birds raised in captivity, by Mr. Kennard (1894b), with much information on the growth, food, and behavior of the young hawks.

In fresh juvenal plumage the crown, back, and wing coverts are dark “bister”, with “tawny” edgings; the tips of the primaries are brownish black without barring, but inwardly they are extensively patterned with dusky and “pinkish cinnamon”; the secondaries are notched with the latter color, and the tertials and upper tail coverts are broadly tipped with it; the tail is tipped with white and has a broad subterminal band of brownish black and seven to nine narrower bands above it, the spaces between being variegated with “hair brown” and light gray on the outer portion and with much “orangecinnamon” on the basal half; the breast varies from pale buff anteriorly to huffy white posteriorly, with elongated ovate spots of sepia, largest on the breast and smallest and palest on the belly and tibiae.

This plumage is worn for about 18 months without much change, except by wear and fading; the tawny edgings wear away and the under parts fade out to whitish, but the cinnamon tints in the remiges and rectrices generally remain. The complete postjuvenal molt begins in summer and is prolonged through the fall. Some birds, perhaps all, acquire during this molt numerous triangular spots of sepia on the breast, which persist while the rufous plumage of the breast is being assumed. The wings and tail are apparently melted late in fall or in winter, and I doubt if the fully adult plumage is acquired until after the next annual molt

Adults have a complete annual molt, beginning sometimes in April and in some cases not completed until October. Molting birds are very scarce in collections, probably because these hawks seek the seclusion of the woods during summer. We have often remarked that, although we could find from 20 to 30 breeding pairs during any spring, I could almost count on the fingers of one hand all I have ever seen in summer.

Food: The red-shouldered hawk is one of our most beneficial and least harmful hawks. It certainly does not deserve its common name, “hen hawk”; Dr. A. K. Fisher (1893) found that its diet consisted of 65 percent small rodents and only 2 percent poultry. Its diet is most varied, as it includes mammals, birds, snakes, frogs, fish, insects, centipedes, spiders, crawfish, earthworms, and snails, 11 classes of animal life. Of 220 stomachs examined byi the Biological Survey, 3 contained poultry; 12, other birds; 102, mice; 40, other mammals; 20, reptiles; 39, batrachians; 92, insects; 16, spiders; 7, crawfish; 3, fish; 2, offal; and 1, earthworms. Dr. B. H. Warren (1890) says: “In my examinations of fifty-seven of these Hawks which have been captured in Pennsylvania, forty-three showed field mice, some few other small quadrupeds, grasshoppers, and insects, mostly beetles; nine revealed frogs and insects; two, small birds, remains of small mammals, and a few beetles; two, snakes and portions of frogs.”

Dr. Fisher (1893) quotes J. Alden Loring as saying: “The pair reared their young for two years in a small swampy piece of woods about 50 rods from a poultry farm containing 800 young chickens and 400 ducks, and the keeper told me he had never seen the hawks attempt to catch one.”

The mammal food recorded includes mice of various kinds, shrews, moles, squirrels, chipmunks, rabbits, muskrats, opossums, and skunks. Birds are not so often taken, but the list includes sora rail, pheasant, bobwhite, chickens, mourning dove, woodcock, screech owl, sparrow hawk, flicker, crow, blackbirds, meadowlark, robin, and various sparrows. Other items are lizards, toads, various frogs, salamanders, turtles, grasshoppers, crickets, mole crickets, beetles, wasps, katydid, cicada, spiders, centipedes, earthworms, snails, and various lepidopterous larvae. Two of these hawks, said to have been destroying birds, were brought to Prof. J. E. Guthrie, of Ames, Iowa; he says (1931) : “I found in the stomach of one, a striped ground squirrel, a young rabbit, and twenty-four full grown grasshoppers. The other one’s stomach was completely filled with our largest common species of grasshoppers, and one that perhaps has been doing the most damage of any in the central states this year. I identified the remains of forty-nine specimens. It is of interest to know that we have these helpers with us this summer when they are so much needed.”

Edward II. Forbush (1927) writes:

Mr. Wilbur Smith informed me that a Red-shouldered Hawk appeared in Birderaft Sanctuary, Fairfield, Connecticut, on January 1, 1920, and was seen by the superintendent daily for two months thereafter. There were nine pheasants in the sanctuary and also a bantam hen with several chicks in a coop, open at the top, but neither chickens nor pheasants were molested by the hawk. About February first it entered a hen-yard, where it found a skinned deer’s neck and a dead opossum, and it fed on the carrion every day for about two weeks, while the hens merely withdrew to the coop. Mr. Frank Novak, the superintendent, saw the rooster standing one day within four feet of the hawk. During the worst kind of weather this bird did not molest a bird or a chicken, but It was repeatedly seen to catch rats and mice.

On the other side of the question Fred 11. Kennard (1894a) says:

In each of the Hawks of this species that I have examined, I have invariably found feathers and birds’ bones, and lots of them. The frogs alone, of which they eat great numbers, would seem to more than balance the injurious rodents of which they are also fond; and as for insects, I do not believe that the Brookline Red-shouldered Hawks eat as many in a year as an ordinary frog could in a day. They must differ in their habits, and accommodate themselves to their surroundings. Perhaps they are, as a species, beneficial, particularly where they hunt in open country; hut In such country as we have around Brookline, I am sure they do more harm than good.

These hawks often use their old nests as feeding stations; these often show more or less down, which tempts us to climb to them, only to find that they have not been repaired and that they contain only remnants of animals a.nd birds that the hawks have eaten.

Behavior: The soaring flight of the red-shouldered hawk, oftenest seen during the early part of the nesting season, is much like that of the other large Buteos. It is powerful and graceful, often protracted to a great height and occasionally ending in a. thrilling nose dive. Often, while hunting, it glides swiftly along on rigid wings just over the tops of the forest trees or even through the woods; again it glides low over the marshes or meadows in search of frogs or mice. Its coloration is concealing in the lights and shadows of the forest, where it can slip up unawares on the squirrels in the trees, or pounce down upon its humbler prey on the ground. When flying from its nest it swoops downward and flaps away in rather heavy flight, quite unlike the bulletlike dash of the Accipiters. On returning to its nest it flies low and glides up to it in an easy curve. When circling above the intruder at its nest and screaming, it does a great deal of flapping, interspersed with short sailings, and then it may glide off out of sight. As with all hawks, the feet are extended behind, aï little below the tail.

There is considerable variation in the behavior of different indi viduals about their nests, and we have noticed that these individual characteristics are apparent year after year. Mr. Kennard (1894a) has noticed the same individual traits in his 10-year records of four pairs near Brookline, Mass. Some individuals always leave the nest quietly before we are near enough to see them and do not show themselves afterward. Others fly as soon as we come within sight, and still others wait until we rap on the tree or start to climb it. A common behavior is for one or both birds to circle about overhead, screaming, for a while and then gradually to drift away. On rare occasions I have had one remain close by, flying from tree to tree and swooping at me as she passed, but I have never had one strike me. Once one perched in a tree above me, stretched out her head, ruffed up the feathers of her neck in a menacing pose, and screamed angrily. E. B. Williamson (1913), of Bluifton, md., describes the actions of a very bold and savage pair that he encountered for two seasons; he writes:

One of the parents remained In the top of the tree calling fiercely but not moving. No attention was paid to it or to the other parent which was not noticed at the time. Just as I stood up on tiptoes to look in the nest this other parent gave me a hard blow on the side of my head, fortunately sinking the heavy felt hat I wore in which three sharp cuts about half an inch long were made. My scalp was slightly cut by the unexpected attack, which resulted in a decided headache. Being thus put on my guard, I watched this parent, which soon returned to the attack, flying from the top of a tall tree about one hundred and fifty feet from me, straight at my head. I struck at It, but missed and the bird swerved, missing my face by about a foot. A third similar attack was made, but Ia this case the bird missed me by about three feet. All this time the other parent remained possibly fifteen feet directly over me, calling shrilly.

The following year his experience with this pair was equally interesting, for he (1915) says:

Both birds met me at the edge of the woods and flew about with noisy screamlug at some elevation as I walked westward. At the west side of the woods I turned and walked in a northeasterly direction directly towards the beech tree in which the first set of eggs were taken in 1913. The female was In a tree top near this beech and when I was possibly 200 feet away she launched herself directly at me. I could hardly conceive she would attack me as I stood on the ground, but she came straight on and I had to drop to my knees to avoid her blow. She alighted west of me and I walked on toward the nest, watching her over my shoulder. I had hardly stepped forward when she again dashed to the attack with more fierceness possibly than before and I again was compelled to drop to my knees. She came to rest about 30 feet from me in a smau maple where she rested In a threatening attitude for some time while I stood admiring her. Her plumage was perfect, her breast being almost red, and her attitude of fearless defiance as she stood leaning toward me made a picture impossible to forget. She made no further attacks till I began climbing the tree when she struck at me viciously four times. It Is needless to say I kept her In sight all the time, keeping the tree between us as much as possible, and jerking my head out of the way to avoid her outreached claws.

Mr. Rathbun writes to me: “We think it a habit of the male redshouldered to perch during the night near the nest on which his mate is sitting. We know this to be a fact in the case of a pair with which we had an acquaintanceship over a period of years. For on a moonlight night we climbed the tree when the nest was in use by the birds, and one of the hawks flushed from its perch on a limb close by the nest, the other from the nest itself. Both birds slipped away as noiselessly as shadows.”

Red-shouldered hawks make good pets, but they must not be taken too young; it is difficult to get proper food for them, and if fed on a pure meat diet when young they are likely to develop rickets and die; they should not be taken until they are nearly grown and well feathered. Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1901) has published an interesting note on this subject, and Mr. Kennard (1894h) has related his experience. I once bad a beautiful adult, that had been wing-broken, in my aviary; it became very tame and gentle and seemed to know me; when I entered its cage it would fly up to me and take food out of my hand. Its favorite, and perfectly natural, food consisted of bird bodies, English sparrows, and mice, with an occasional red squirrel or frog. It came to a tragic end, as a great horned owl that I had in the next cage broke in, killed it, and partially ate it. Mr. Shelley tells me of an immature bird that was captured and confined in a large packing box:

Thereafter its fierceness grew apace; it became more than willing to fight in distrust some of its visitors, particularly those in the household where it was held a captive, yet to others was calm and made no overtures of hatred or unfriendliness. To those of whom It was a captive, never did it show but the keonest of distrust, even though they fed it. My eldest brother, having a broken wrist at this time and belug somewhat of a sportsman with leisure time to spend, shot squirrels for the hawk as a dietetic change from poultry. The bird caine to know his voice, and expectancy showed in its eyes when my brother came near, prompted, no doubt, by its desire for its natural food.

Voice: IDuring the breeding season the red-shouldered are the noisiest of our hawks. Their characteristic note is a loud, shrill scream, similar to one of the notes of the blue jay, but different in quality. It sounds like kee-aak or lcee-oow, the first syllable on a higher key and strongly emphasized, the second dropping off in pitch and prolonged. This call is usually repeated rapidly from two to four times; but I once saw a bird sit in a tree, watching me, and give four series of calls, repeating this note from 18 to 21 times in each series. On two or three occasions I have heard and seen the red-shouldered hawk give a long, plaintive call, all on one key, much like the well-known note of the broad-winged hawk, ke-wee-e-e-e, but on a lower key and not so prolonged, with the accent on the second syllable. Ora W. Knight (1908) says he has “heard the birds utter a scolding coo, ccc, ccc”, which I have always attributed to the Cooper’s hawk.

Enemies: The larger hawks have few enemies except man, but Verdi Burtch’s (1927) experience in finding a redtail feeding on a freshly killed redshoulder and the murder of my pet hawk by a great horned owl show that this species has at least two avian enemies. But sportsmen, farmers, and poultry and game breeders are all sworn enemies of all hawks and will not be convinced that there is any good hawk but a dead hawk. The bounty system is far too prevalent and leads to the killing of far too many old and young hawks in or near their nests, which the farmers hunt up and watch until the young hatch; the old birds are then more easily shot and the heads of the young secured. I believe we have saved the lives of many a family of hawks by taking the eggs in April; they lay a second set in May and stand a better chance of raising a brood when the leaves are out; then the nests are harder t.o find and the farmers have ceased to look for them.

Field marks: The adult red-shouldered hawk is easily recognized by the more or less pale, ruddy underparts and by the conspicuous black-and-white barring on the wings and tail; the broadwing has a barred tail, but the bands are fewer, broader, and less conspicuously black and white. The young redshoulder is much like the young broadwing, but larger; it is smaller than the young redtail, and the markings on the underparts are more evenly distributed, whereas the young redtail has a largely white breast and dark markings on the belly and flanks. Mr. Forbush (1927) says: “The only necessary field mark when bird is soaring (even at a height or distance which may require a glass) is the apparent translucent spot in the wing near its tip formed by the short black and white wing-barring. This is diagnostic and no other New England hawk has anything like it.”

Fall: About the middle of September and during October these hawks become more in evidence and begin slowly drifting southward. Dr. Charles XV. Townsend (1920) mentions a large flight that occurred at Amesbury, Mass., on September 18, 1886, when a “flock of about 300” passed. Referring to northeastern Illinois, Dr. E. W. Nelson (1S77a) writes:

Mr. R. Kennicott speaks of an immense flight of this species, consisting of thousands, which passed over Chicago, “in October, 1854.” The main fall migration of hawks in this vicinity takes place the last of September or first of October, and a statement of the numbers which pass in a single day, to one who has not observed them, would be received with incredulity. Choosing a day when there is a strong south or south-west wind, the hawks commence moving south early in the morning and continue flying the entire day, and so numerously that, taking a stand at a good point, one would have from one to fifty hawks In view, with but very few intermissions, throughout the day. Among these occur all the migrants, but by far the greater number consist of the smaller species.

Winter: While most of these hawks migrate to a milder climate, a few remain all winter as far north as southern New England. William Brewster (1906) says that they “are often seen” in the marshes and along the rivers near Cambridge, Mass., in winter. “At this season, when they are nearly or quite silent, they are given to haunting level, open country sprinkled with large, isolated trees. In some of these the Hawks have favorite perches to which they resort day after day and year after year, to bask in the winter sunshine and to watch for meadow mice.~~

Referring to Pennsylvania, Dr. B. H. ‘Warren (1890) writes:

During the winter these hawks frequent principally the large Water courses, meadow-lands, and the vicinity of ponds, and not unfrequontly an Individual of this species can be observed on its perch overlooking a spring-head. When the streams and meadows are frozen I have noticed that they especially resort to such localities as last named. When disturbed from Its perch It utters, In a plaintive and impatient voice, the note, kcco, kceo. Its flight, generally short, Is graceful and very owl-like. This hawk, like Its relative, the Red-tail, may he observed sitting by the hour on some favorite tree or stake adjacent to swampy or boggy ground, watching for small quadrupeds and batrachians, which constitute Its principal fare.

DISTRIBUTION
Range: North America, exclusive of the Rocky Mountain region, from southern Canada south to northern Mexico. The range of the red-shouldered hawk is discontinuous, the species occurring over the eastern part of the country west to Nebraska, Kansas, and central Texas and reappearing (as the red-bellied hawk) in the Pacific coast regions from Oregon south to northwestern Mexico.

Breeding range: The breeding range extends north to eastern Oregon (Camp Harney); Nebraska (Neligh, Linwood, and Omaha); Iowa (Boone and La Porte City); Wisconsin (La Crosse, Honey Creek, New London, and Sturgeon Bay); northern Michigan (probably Isle Royal, McMillan, and Sault Ste. Marie); southern Ontario (Parry Sound, Reaboro, and Ottawa); southern Quebec (Montreal and Quebec) ; and Prince Edward Island (North River). East to Prince Edward Island (North River) ; New Brunswick (Grand Manan); Maine (Bucksport, South Warren, and Portland); New Hampshire (Webster); Massachusetts (Andover, Salem, Boston, and Dighton); Rhode Island (Newport); Connecticut (New London and New Haven); New York (Ossining and New York City); New Jersey (probably Princeton and Cape May); Maryland (Camoridge); Virginia (Ashland and probably Dismal Swamp); North Carolina (Walker and Lake Ellis) ; South Carolina (Charleston) Georgia (Savannah, Riceboro, and St. Marys) ; and Florida (Palatka, San Mateo, Tomoka, Titusville, St. Lucie, Fort Pierce, Miami, Cape Sable, and Key West). South to Florida (Key West, Loggerhead Key, Tallahassee, Whitfield, and Pensacola); Louisiana (New Orleans and Baton Rouge); Texas (Beaumont, Columbus, and probably Corpus Christi); Tamaulipas; and Lower California (San Rafael). West to Lower California (San Rafael); California (San Diego, Escondido, San Onofre, Los Angeles, Santa Paula, probably near Buena Vista Lake, probably Visalia, Palo Alto, Sonoma, and probably Tehama); and Oregon (Camp Ilarney).

According to L. B. Potter (MS.) two pairs of these hawks nested at Eastend, Saskatchewan, in 1909 and 1910. This is, however, well outside of the normal breeding range.

The range above outlined is for the entire species, which has been separated into five subspecies. The northern red-shouldered hawk (Buteo 1. lineatus) breeds from southern Ontario, Quebec, and Prince Edward Island south to Kansas, Missouri, and Nort.h Carolina, wintering south to the Gulf and South Atlantic States; th~ Florida red-shouldered hawk (B. 1. alleni) is resident in the Southern States from Oklahoma and eastern Texas east to South Carolina and south to central Florida; the insular red-shouldered hawk (B. 7. extimus) occupies the southern portion of the Florida Peninsula and the Florida Keys; the Texas red-shouldered hawk (B. 7. texanus) is resident in the Coastal Plain region of southeastern Texas and adjacent parts of the State of Tamaulipas, Mexico; and the redbellied hawk (B. 7. elegctns) is the Pacific coast race resident chiefly in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys of California, ranging south to Lower California and Colima.

The nomnigratory status of the southern forms is indicated by an adult (A625381) banded on January 31 at Lafayette, La., which was killed in the same area on October 2 of the same year. Two others (210898 and 210899) banded as juveniles in Leon County. Fla., on May 7, 1924, were recaptured in the same region on October 20, 1924, and April 18, 1930. On the other hand, three birds from the same nest (309826, 309827, and 309828) banded at ‘Windsor, Conn., on June 15, 1924, were all recovered in this State after the lapse of several years, the recovery dates being May 11, 1927, October 8, 1928, and November 14, 1928.

Winter range: In winter the red-shouldered hawk is found north to California (Tehama) ; western Texas (San Angelo) ; Oklahoma (Oklahoma City) ; Missouri (La Grange) ; southern Illinois (Odin) Indiana (Logansport and Richmond); Ohio (New Paris, Oberlin, and Youngstown) ; northwestern Pennsylvania (Meadville) ; New York (Geneva, Ithaca, and Rhinebeck) ; and eastern Massachusetts (Boston). East to Massachusetts (Boston); Rhode Island (Providence); Connecticut (New London); Long Island (Orient); New Jersey (Princeton, Camden, and Newfleld) ; Maryland (Cambridge) Virginia (Wallops Island) ; North Carolina (Raleigh) ; South Caroline (Marion, Georgetown, Mount Pleasant, and Charleston) ; Georgia (Savannah); and Florida (Palatka, Daytona, Orlando, St. Lucie, Royal Palm Park, and Key Largo). South to Florida (Key Largo, Sanibel Island, and St. Marks) ; Mississippi (Biloxi) ; Louisiana (Lake Catherine, New Orleans, and Vermilion Bay) ; Texas (Citrusgrove and Brownsville) ; Tamaulipas; and rarely Colima (Plains of Colima). West to rarely Colima (Plains of Colima); Sinaloa (Mazatlan) ; Lower California (Colorado River Delta) ; and California (Snelling, Mann County, Marysville, and Tehama).

Red-shouldered hawks are sometimes noted in winter north to Kansas (Independence) ; Iowa (Hillsboro) ; central Illinois (Rantoul) ; southern Michigan (Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor, and Detroit); Ontario (Hamilton and Toronto); and Vermont (Bennington and Mont.pelier).

Spring migration: Early dates of spring arrival in the regions north of the normal winter range, are: New iHampshire: Concord. March 13; South Manchester, March 10; Tilton. March 20; and Sanbornton, March 29. Maine: Lewiston, March 4; Waterville. March 7; Auburn, March 11; and Portland, March 15. Quebec: Montreal. March 5; Isle Jesus, March 13; and East Sherbrooke, March 19. Michigan: Three Rivers, February 11; Detroit, February 14; Grand Rapids, February 16; and Kalamazoo, February 19. Ontario: London, February 7; Strathroy, February 17; Point Pelee, February 23; and Ottawa, March 13. Iowa: Brooklyn, February 5; Springville, February 13; and Sigourney, February 15. Wisconsin: Durand, March 3; New London, March 5; Milwaukee. March 10; and Superior, March 13. Minnesota: Minneapolis, February 21. Nebraska: Badger, March 25. South Dakota: Huron. March 16.

Fall migration: Late dates of fall departure are: South Dakota: Yankton, November 14. Nebraska: Neligh, October 6. Wisconsin: Ladysmith, October 15; New London, October 28; and Greenbush. October 30. lowa: Keokuk, October 13; and Marshalltown, October 25. Ontario: Point. Pelee, November 1; Ottawa, November 6; Toronto, November 12; and London, November 20. Michigan: Schooleraft, November 3; Grand Rapids, November 8; Detroit, November 13; and Ganges, November 18. Quebec: Hatlev. October 25; and Montreal, November 6. Maine: Portland, October 16; Winthrop. October 28; North Livermore, November 3; and Buckfield, November 11.

A red-shouldered hawk (311766) banded on June 17 at Belchertown, Mass., was trapped and released at Hanover, Pa., on December 25 of the same year; another (312011) banded on June 1 at Worthington, Mass., was caught in a trap at Seagrove, N. C., on November 28; while a third (201381), banded on October 11 at Harper, Kans., was killed at Caddo, Tex., on September 7 of the following year.

Casual records: Brooks (1917) reports that he has twice seen the red-bellied hawk at Chilliwack, British Columbia; Fannin states that he took it at Burrard Inlet (Kermode, 1904), and Macoun (1909) reported that W. B. Anderson had found it at Port Simpson. Nevertheless, no specimen of the species is known from this Province. A specimen was taken on November 17, 1853, at a camp on the Little Colorado River, N. Mex., and Dr. Henry claimed that he saw it at Fort Thorn during the winter of 1856: 57 (Bailey, 1928). It also has been reported from Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, Montana, and Alberta, but in none of these cases has a specimen been collected. A specimen was taken on February 26, 1863, at Kingussie, Scotland.

Egg dates: Southern Canada: 41 records, April 16 to May 25; 21 records April 24 to May 7.

New England and New York: 383 records, March 5 to May 31; 192 records, April 18 to 29.

New Jersey to Virginia: 99 records, March 19 to June 28; 49 records, April 10 to 25.

Ohio to North Dakota and Colorado: 75 records, March 13 to June 21; 38 records, April 13 to May 1.

Washington to California: 185 records, February 12 to June 19; 93 records, March 23 to April 13.

South Carolina and Florida to Texas: 196 records, January 20 to June 3; 98 records, March 2 to April 4.

FLORIDA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
BUTEO LINEATUS ALLENI Ridgway
HABITS

Ridgway (1884), in naming this southern race of the red-shouldered hawk, characterized it as “smaller than B. lineatus, the adult much paler in color, with no rufous on upper parts, except on lesser wing coverts; the young decidedly darker than in true lineatus.” He says further: “The very decided ashy coloration of the upper parts, relieved only by fine shaft-lines of black on the head and neck, dusky clouding on the back, and white streaking on the occiput, combined with the pale coloration of the lower parts, serves readily to distinguish this race from the true B. lineatus.”

This small pale race might more properly be called the southern red-shouldered hawk, for it is widely distributed throughout the Southern States, from South Carolina to Arkansas and Oklahoma, and a more recently described form occupies the southern part of Florida. In Florida it is decidedly the commonest hawk and quite evenly distributed in all kinds of timbered regions; it seems to be equally at home in the extensive flat pine woods and in the dense live-oak hammocks. It is much more abundant than hawks are elsewhere, is quite tame and conspicuous, and, during the breeding season, very noisy. It seems to be less of a forest bird and is oftener seen in open country than is its northern relative. It is most abundant in regions like the Kissimmee Prairie, where wide open prairies or savannas are dotted with small hammocks of live oaks and palmettos. In the flat pine woods it is more widely scattered and seems to prefer the smaller tracts or the vicinity of small cypress swamps.

Courtship: Donald J. Nicholson (1930) writes:

Early in December the birds begin their wild courtship “songs”, which consist of loud, piercing, shrill calls, or screams, given while circling in the air. With loud cries they either soar or flap their wings rapidly, going in a circle higher and higher. From one to four individuals may be seen in the air at a time over the chosen nesting site. Spirited swoops and long dives through the air are often seen, they calling sharply the while. These cries are given also flying from one place to another. They are most noisy at this period, and keep it up throughout the entire day at intervals.

Nesting: The Florida red-shouldered hawk nests in a variety of situations and is not particular as to the choice of a tree. My first nest was found on April 24, 1902, at Oak Lodge, across the Indian River from Grant. It was about 25 feet from the ground, in a nearly horizontal crotch of a wide-spreading live oak, in the middle of a dense hammock of live oaks and palmettos. The nest was a handsome but bulky affair, measuring 24 inches in diameter and 18 inches high, the inner cavity being 10 inches across and 3 inches deep. It was made of sticks, profusely draped with Spanish moss hanging down in a long festoon on one side and decorated with white down and two sprigs of evergreen; it was lined with green leaves of the live oak, Spanish moss, a snake’s skin, and strips of inner bark. It contained only one egg, nearly ready to hatch.

A different type of nesting, more typical of the northern or the Texas varieties, was seen in the heavy, river-bottom forest along the Ilillsboro River. This magnificent forest contains some of the finest timber I have ever seen in Florida: live oaks, pin oaks, hickories, locusts, palmettos, pines, and cedars, with an undergrowth of hawthorn, ironwood, and dogwood. High up in one of the largest pin oaks, fully 50 feet, was the hawk’s nest, much as we should expect to find one in our northern woods. Although the hawks were flying about and screaming on February 22, 1925, the nest was empty at that time; but my companion, Oscar P. Baynard, collected a set of eggs from it later.

On March 8, 1925, while we were walking along the edge of a cypress swamp in Polk County, we heard a hawk scream and saw it fly out from the swamp. ïWe waded in, where the water was less than knee deep, and found the nest about 60 feet up in a tall cypress. It was a new nest but still empty. Bendire (1892) mentions two nests found by Dr. Ralph in pine trees in cypress swamps; one was 57 feet and one 40 feet from the ground.

These hawks nest more abundantly in the small mixed hammocks along the Kissimmee River than I have ever found them elsewhere. Walter B. Savary found no less than 65 nests in this region, in an area about 10 miles long by 5 miles wide, during a single season. Of these, 35 were in cabbage palmettos, 15 in live oaks, 10 in gums, 3 in bays, and 1 each in a maple and a myrtle. The highest nest was 60 feet from the ground in a tall, slender gum, and the lowest was only 9 feet up in a myrtle. Practically all the nests were in small, mixed hammocks of an acre, or less, in area; some were in trees in small clumps of bushes, not tall enough to screen the nests from view. As to the placing of the nests, he says in his notes that in palmettos the nests are invariably placed “on the dead leaf stubs just beneath the living fronds; a caracara always builds among the live stems, but I never have found a hawk’s nest so situated. If an oak is chosen, the bird seeks either a very leaning trunk, on which she can set the foundation, or a slanting limb.”

As Mr. Savary made an extended stay in this region, he was able to learn some interesting facts and has sent me some elaborate notes. One discovery showed the length of time that the nest is occupied before the eggs are laid; the hawk “stakes out its claim”, as it were, long in advance and guards its chosen territory against all intruders. “Once a location is settled upon the birds cling to it year after year. So attached are they to their home site that to hold it against intrusion they mark the nest with green leaves several weeks before laying, thus letting others know that the premises are preempted.” In one striking instance he flushed a hawk off its nest on January 18 and on climbing to it found only a fresh spray of airplant in the nest. Expecting to find eggs soon, he climbed to it again five days later but found only the airplant in place. After a further lapse of two weeks the airplant marker was still in the nest, but dry and crisp; thinking the nest was deserted, he threw out the marker and “left the nest for at least a month.” About I~vIarch 5 he found that the hawk “had renewed her signature by placing a spray of myrtle” in the nest. Finally, on March 14, nearly two months after noting the first sign, he found two eggs in the nest.

Eggs: .The number of eggs laid by the Florida red-shouldered hawk is usually two, occasionally three, and very rarely four. The eggs differ from those of the species elsewhere only in size; they show similar wide variations in types and colors of markings. The measurements of 105 eggs average 52.6 by 42.7 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 58.4 by 44.5, 56 by 45.8, 49.1 by 42.3, and 50 by 40.5 millimeters.

Food: This hawk lives on much the same kind of food as other red-shouldered hawks, a small percentage of poultry and other birds and a large percentage of insects and small vertebrates. Out of 20 stomachs reported on by Dr. A. K. Fisher (1893), only one contained poultry and only two other birds, a sora rail and sparrows. Other items mentioned are mice, a catfish, frogs, lizards, snakes, a turtle, dragonflies, crickets, grasshoppers, cicadas, beetles, cockroaches, spiders, crawfish, earthworms, and various larvae. Bendire (1892) adds, on the authority of Dr. William L. Ralph, “their food consists principally of mice, Florida rats, young rabbits, the small gray squirrel found in this State, and probably an occasional frog or small snake.” Arthur T. Wayne (1910) says: “During the breeding season this hawk frequently catches chickens and even grown fowls, but its principal food is mice, frogs, and snakes. It is very fond of water-snakes and will sit on a dead tree by a pond of water for hours waiting to prey upon them.”

Charles J. Pennock writes to me that “they may often be seen to feed high up at the borders of a dense pall of smoke from a swamp grass fire, where large, winged grasshoppers abound.” One that he shot was feeding on a fox squirrel.

Behavior: The habits of the Florida redshoulder are not essentially different from those of its northern relative, except that it is much less shy, often stupidly tame and unsuspicious. Often it will sit on a pole or tree by the roadside and allow one to drive by within a few yards. Only once have I had one offer to attack me near its nest, and Mr. Savary had only one such experience. But Mr. Nicholson (1930) says:

The birds are very bold and fearless in the defense of their nests, either while the eggs are fresh, or with young. One day I visited five nests, and the first bird carried away my cap in her talons and struck me such a severe blow that it gave me a had headache, and left a scratch on my forehead. At two more nests I was attacked and struck upon the head. Many other times this has happened. This bird coming swiftly as an arrow directly for your head, screaming wildly, gives a timid soul the shivers, and unless you wildly wave your arms and shout, most likely she will give you a stiff blow that will put fear Into you, and respect for their bravery.

Mr. Savary says in his notes: “For aï hawk it is a very gentle bird among others of its kind and, not. intolerant of neighbors, often nests in the same grove with a crow or a caracara. In three instances I have found its nest and a caracara’s within 50 feet of each other. There is one exception, however: it does not like the Florida barred owl, and I have seen it in hot pursnit of one that had come near its domicile. Sometimes in this pursuit it is joined by a crow, and I have seen the two hustling an owl’s departure with considerable spirit.”

RED-BELLIED HAWK
BUTEO LINEATUS ELEGANS Cassin
HABITS

In a large grove of big cottonwoods near San Jacinto, Calif., on March 8, 1929, I made the acquaintance of this beautiful hawk. As we sat on a. log, eating our lunch, we heard and saw three different birds; of those seen clearly, one was immature and one a handsome adult. I could well imagine that I was away back home. in the good old New England woods in April, listening to the screams of our familiar Buteos and watching their graceful soarings over the leafless treetops. As it lives in similar haunts, its habits, appearance, and voice seemed identical with those of our eastern redshouldered hawk. The birds seemed to be interested in the locality, and we found what proved to be their new nest, 40 or 50 feet up on a branch and against the leaning trunk of a large cottonwood. My companion, Wright M. Pierce, visited this nest on April 9, with the result shown on plate 60.

The red-bellied hawk is about the same size as its eastern relative but much more brilliantly colored, the deep rufous of the breast being nearly, or quite, unbroken in adults; young birds are much darker, the deep brownish markings prevailing.

I was told tha.t this hawk had become very scarce and that I could hardly hope to see one in southern California. It has undoubtedly been greatly reduced in numbers in the more thickly settled regions. but we seldom failed to find it in suitable localities, wooded river bottoms and lowland forests, remote from civilization. It is not an open-country bird like the rcdtail and so is less in evidence. It prefers the sheltered groves along the streams in the lower interior valleys, extending its hunting range into the adjoining fields and marshes.

James B. Dixon (1928) writes:

The typical range of a pair of these birds usually contains a central grove of oak, willow, or cottonwood trees In a river bottom, in which to build the nest. The birds are particularly partial to such a location when the surrounding canyon sides are heavily wooded and the stream bed is surrounded by open meadows of wet pasture land and alfalfa fields. They have a habit of sitting low on some dead snag or telephone post from which they can dart suddenly down and capture their prey. Their sense of hearing is extremely keen and I think they hunt as much by It as by sight. They do not descend from a great height in a grand swoop to strike their unsuspecting prey as does the Western Red-tail or the Golden Eagle, their hunting tactics being much more like those of the Marsh Hawk and the American Long-eared Owl.

Courtship: Mr. Dixon (1928) says that this hawk is so noisy during the mating season that it becomes very conspicuous.

The usual program is for the bird leisurely to ascend in wide spirals to an elevation of 1~0O to 2000 feet above the nest grove, where it will give a few preliminary flaps of its wings, the sIgnal for the noise to begin, and squalling and diving it will descend to the same place from which it started or to the nest grove nearby, in a series of nose dives and side slips. I have seen eagles doing this same stunt without the noise, but have also noted that always in the offing there is an interloper In the form of another eagle, to whom it is perhaps given as a warning. The Red-beflied Hawk seems to do this stunt for the sheer joy of the thing.

Nesting: The same writer, who has “a record of twenty-three nesting locations within a radius of thirty miles of Escondido”, says:

The Red-bellied Hawk, like the Cooper Hawk, selects as a nest site, not some commanding view of its hunting grounds, but a location in a densely wooded grove. Preferably, the nest is placed about one-half way up the main stem of the tree, upon horizontal limbs and braced against the main trunk. This is a distinctive trait where nesting groves have not been disturbed by clearing of land or been washed away by floods. Rather than leave a chosen hunting ground, however, the hawks will accommodate themselves to almost any kind of a location. Considering their size, the birds build the smallest structure of any of the raptores hereabouts. I have often found nests which from the ground looked as though they could not possibly contain eggs, let alone conceal a sitting bird, but upon climbing the tree, the bird would leave and the nest would be found to contain four eggs. After incubation is well begun it is almost impossible to flush the sitting bird by any other method than climbing to the nest, and in several instances I have known the bird to remain until the climber reached it.

The nest is composed outwardly of dead twigs of the trees common to the river bottom, such as sycamore, willow and cottonwood, the inner part of frayed-out bark of the cottonwood and willow. This bark makes a soft mat upon which the finishing touches of green leaves and downy feathers are placed. The green leaves are const8ntly replenished during the incubation period and long after the young are hatched. After incubation has progressed somewhat a large number of downy feathers will make their appearance on and around the nest. This becomes so noticeable in some cases as to be a sure sign of occupancy and one which I have never noticed to such a marked degree in any of our other raptoras.

A pair of hawks often has two or more nests, usually in the same tree or in adjoining trees, and if undisturbed they will remain year after year in the same grove. If an old nest is used, very little is done to it with the exception of relining with bark and green leaves; so the structure does not take on such a large size as with other hawks. The determining factor in a location seems to be the food supply, and if that is to be had the hawks will use whatever trees are available. I have found nests in willow as low as twenty-five feet from the ground and in large sycamores as high as eighty-five feet. I have never found these hawks using any nest but one constructed by themselves, though I have found other birds using theirs.

On April 9,1929, I spent a most interesting day in the field with Mr. Dixon in his territory, visiting seven nests of red-bellied hawks.

A brief description of these nests will illustrate the variety of situations chosen (see p1. 69). The first was in a small, densely wooded, swampy swale, such as our eastern bird sometimes chooses; and the nest was 40 feet from the ground in a leaning sycamore. The second was found after a long search through an extensive cottonwood flat, open in some places and thickly wooded in others; we finally flushed the hawk off her nest, about 70 feet up in a tall cottonwood; this nest held three downy young. As we walked down a cart path close to the bank of a river, among an open growth of tall sycamores in a narrow valley, the third nest was seen 68 feet from the ground in one of these tall trees; it was new but empty.. In a patch of smaller sycamores and willows we found the fourth nest, from which we flushed the bird; this nest was 40 feet up in a slender leaning sycamore, so slender that we had to rope it to a larger tree before it was safe to climb it; this held three eggs. The fifth nest required a thorough search in a thick patch of large willows and other dense growth in a swampy hollow; we finally rapped the hawk off a very large old nest only 30 feet up in a spreading willow and collected four eggs from it. While we were driving along the road we saw a nest about 50 feet up in a tall sycamore, which towered above all the surrounding trees; we supposed it was a redtail’s nest, being in such an exposed situation, but were surprised to see a red-bellied hawk fly from it; this yielded a set of three eggs. The seventh and last nest was fully 76 feet from the ground in the top of a tall slender eucalyptus in the center of a grove of these trees; it was a small nest, and the tail of the sitting bird projected over the edge of it; as the tree was swaying badly in a strong breeze we did not care to climb it.

C. S. Sharp (1906) says that these hawks “have a great fondness for Eucalyptus groves, making their nests at times on the masses of bark that have sloughed off and collected in some large crotch of the main branches.” He continues:

Since 1898 I have had good opportunity for observing an Isolated pair. These birds have occupied six different nests: all in Eucalyptus trees: either in groves or as shade trees on sides of the road, the extremes being about a mile apart. Every year but one they have been levied on for one set of eggs. On one year only was a second set taken from them. After the removal of the first clutch the birds have gone to the nearest nest: generally to a nest in the same grove and only a few rods away and have occupied it for a second, never going from one extreme limit of their range to the other.

One nest was for three years occupied first by a pair of Pacific horned owls. In 1899 I found the hawk on the nest which held two fresh eggs, and two young owls were in the branches of the next tree. As that was then the only nest in the grove it looked as if there bad been a rather hasty eviction. In another nest of this pair in 1898 I found three eggs of the hawk and one of the longeared owl.

Major Bendire (1892) found two nests near Camp Harney, Oreg.; one was in a young pine on some limbs close to the top and the trunk of the tree, on the outskirts of the heavy timber”; the second nest “was placed in a tall juniper tree, likewise near the trunk and about 20 feet from the ground.” lie also mentions nests found by A. W. Anthony in giant cactus and candlewoods.

Eggs: Three or four eggs constitute the usual set laid by the redbellied hawk, three being commoner than four; sets of two are uncommon and sets of five very rare. Bendire (1892) says that Dr. B. W. Evermann found as many as five eggs in a nest. The eggs are similar to those of the eastern race but are more often richly, heavily, and handsomely marked though showing all the usual variations. The measurements of 46 eggs average 53.4 by 42.1 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 56.2 by 44.8, 54 by 45.7, 48.3 by 40.6, and 50.2 by 39.6 millimeters.

Young: Mr. Dixon (1928) writes:

After the eggs are laid and incubation begins, the two birds seem to share equally in this duty. Incubation period varies from twenty-three to twenty-five days, varying according to the care with which incubation was conducted iu the first few days, during the laying of the eggs and directly afterwards. As incubation starts usually with the laying of the first egg, the young emerge from the shell over a period of several days. Quite a difference in size is often noted when they are first hatched, but this disappears as they reach the age of four or five weeks. In several instances where I have observed that the heavily marked eggs of a set were laid first, they were the first to hatch, and in all cases where infertile eggs were noted, these were the lightly marked or plain eggs of the set. Infertile eggs are not at all uncommon and it is rarely that all of a set of four eggs are fertile. The young birds do not develop very fast the first week, but thereafter they increase rapidly in weight tip to five weeks from hatching. Then the feathers begin to make their appearance and from this time on the feathers develop rapidly.

Food: The food habits of the red-bellied hawk proclaim it a very useful bird, living largely on injurious rodents, amphibians, reptiles, and insects. It very seldom attacks poultry or other birds. Mr. Sharp (1906) gives us some good evidence of this:

One of-my friends in San Pasqual Valley, where these hawks are common, told me the red-bellied and red-tailed hawks had nested on his ranch as long as he could remember the is a very old resident) and it was very seldom they would touch a chicken tho the latter were running free all the time.

All the time I was at the nest some 200 chickens of all ages and sizes were working around the barn yard, in the corral and out on the stubble beyond, many of them fully 200 yards from shelter but they never even gave a warning cry when the old hawk flew from the nest across the yard.

Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says:

In most parts of California where they breed, the records show them to have eschewed everything with feathers, and to have dined upon small snakes, lizards, frogs, Insects, and crawfish. Fur and feathers are caught only as a last resort when there are hungry young In the nest.

Dr. Harold C. Bryant (1921) found in the stomach of one bird a number of insect remains, including larvae of a hawk moth (PachyspA ynx modesta):

This caterpillar when full-grown Is from two to two and one-half Inches In length, of a light green color, with yellow lines on the head and along the sIdes of the body, and feeds on various species of willow. Eight of these caterpillar. were found in the hawk’s stomach together with the remains of two mole crickets (Steno pelmatu8, sp.), one beetle (Coniontis, sp.), one ground beetle (nnldentlfled), and some grass and pieces of wood that doubtless were picked up with the food.

W. Leon Dawson (1923) says that if this hawk “rises on occasion to a ground squirrel or a brush rabbit, he oftener descends to fence lizards and frogs, or even insects.”

Behavior: The red-bellied hawk does not differ materially in habits or voice from its eastern relative; the resemblance is striking. Mrs. Wheelock (1904) says:

The Red-bellied Hawk is exceptionally fond of bathing, and In California It usually builds within a hundred yards of water. Both adults Indulge In a daily bath, returning to the same place at about the same hour for It.

Laurence M. ilney (1913) saw a pair of these hawks make an attack on a nest of Pacific horned owls containing young:

The three young were rather large and partly feathered. As the old bird left the nest a pair of Red-bellied Hawks set out In pursuit. One continued to chase the old owl, while the other hawk returned and robbed the nest of one of the young owls This was torn to pieces and eaten in a nearby tree.

In view of the prevailing impression that these hawks are disappearing rapidly, the following remarks by Mr. Dixon (1928) are encouraging:

In 1907, I personally visited and either collected a set of eggs from, or located, the nests of seven pairs of Red-bellied Hawks In the northern end of San Diego County, and in 1927, twenty years later, I made It a point to renew my acquaintance with these seven locations. In every Instance I found a pair of hawks still resident in the same general locality.

Twenty years ago ft was a common practice for everyone traveling through the country to carry along a shotgun, and any bird of prey was considered a good target. This condition does not exist at present, as the cost of ammunition has increased, the game laws are being enforced, and, last and most important, the people are becoming educated to the fact that our hawks and owls have their economic place in the well-being of the farmer, and they are seldom shot. Other changes are taking place which make the outlook In this section more cheerful for a continuing number of these beautiful birds to live here. A few years ago not far from where I live there was a long strip of river bottom In which resided a single pair of Red-bellied Hawks. Today, this same stream has been dammed and where the river bottom used to be there is a lake, and along the shores of this lake, In the same area which used to support a single pair of birds, three pairs now live, and all of them seem to thrive and find plenty of food. This has proven conclusively to me that if food supply conditions are right, the existing birds will breed up to fill In this favored area or less favorably situated birds will move In to fill the gap.

INSULAR RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
BUTEO LINEATUS EXTIMUS Bangs
HABITS

The above common name of this small race of the red-shouldered hawk is based on the erroneous impression that it is confined to the Florida Keys, and that is the only range given for it in the latest A. 0. U. check-list (1931). During three seasons I have traveled extensively over many of the keys. Although I have seen these hawks on some of the larger keys, I have never seen a hawk’s nest on any of the keys. The type specimen was collected on Key Biscayne, opposite Miami in Dade County, which is practically a part of the mainland and a long way from the Florida Keys proper. As a matter of fact, it is a widely distributed and very common hawk all through the southern third of Florida and for an undetermined distance farther north. Birds that I have collected in the southern counties, as far north as Lake Okeechobee, are all typical of this form. How much farther north it ranges, or where it intergrades with alleni, is yet to be learned; a gradual diminution in size makes it difficult to draw the line.

Outram Bangs (19~O),in describing this form, gave as its characters: “Similar to Buteo iineatu.s alleni, and not much dilkrent in color though perhaps averaging in general a little darker and richer, but much smaller.” The striking color characters of both extimnus and alleni are the extreme grayness on the head and upper parts generally and the paleness of the under parts; these are quite noticeable in the field. The “darker and richer” colors referred to by Mr. Bangs are not noticeable in my specimens.

The center of abundance of extimus seems to be in Monroe County and around the southern edge of the Everglades, where it is exceedingly abundant for a hawk. Everglades red-shouldered hawk would have been an appropriate name, for it is in no sense insular. As one drives along the Tamiami Trail these little hawks are much in evidence and very tame, perched on the telegraph poles and allowing a close approach; they seem to realize that no shooting is allowed within a mile of this road. They are oftenest seen in and about the small cypress swamps, where they probably find abundant food. They are less often to be found in the flat pine woods and about the hardwood hammocks on dry ground.

Nesting: My first nest of this hawk was shown to me on April 2?, 1903, near Flamingo, at the southern t.ip of Florida. It was about 30 feet from the ground in a black mangrove in a grove of these trees near the shore; it was the usual nest of sticks lined with mangrove leaves. A single young bird, fully grown, was sitting up in the nest, but it flew away as I started to climb.

During the winter and spring of 1930, I climbed to and examined six nests of this little hawk and saw a number of others. On January 23 we saw the hawks building their nest in an unusual situation in a small clump of buttonwoods and other small trees and bushes in the Everglades. The site chosen was only 10 feet above the ground in the leafy top of a small buttonwood where the top of another fallen tree rested against it. The nest was so well concealed that I was not sure that it was a nest until I looked into it. It was made of sticks, weeds, and grasses and lined with green leaves from the surrounding trees. On January 31 this nest contained one very pretty egg, but when I visited it again, on February 10, it was empty and deserted.

The southern part of the Everglades is dotted with small mottes, or islands, aïn acre or two in area, of small or medium-sized cypresses, growing in water a foot or so in depth. These were favorite nesting sites for these hawks, and most of the many nests that we saw were in such situations; early in the season, before the cypresses were in full leaf, the nests were conspicuous at a long distance. A low nest of this type, found on February 27, was only 15 feet above the water on some horizontal branches of a small cypress on the very edge of the motte. It was made of sticks and twigs of cypress and lined with weed stems, strips of cypress bark, green twigs, and green leaves; it was profusely decorated with white down and contained three eggs; it measured 24 inches in outside and 7 inches in inside diameter, the inner cavity being ~ inches deep. Other nests were well within the mottes and higher up, 20 to 30 feet, in larger cypresses, but generally in plain sight. Once, while I-was watching a nest on which I could see the head of the incubating bird, I heard a hawk scream and saw it come sailing along through the trees and alight on the edge of the nest; the sitting bird, apparently the male, immediately arose and flew away; the newcomer settled on the nest and began incubating. I climbed to the nest and found only one egg; this was the second nest on which we had found a hawk incubating on one egg, perhaps for protection against crows.

On January 81 I visited a nest that I had previously located in some flat pine woods on a large island in the Everglades; the hawk had flown from the nest when I rapped the tree and returned to it within five minutes, while I sat in plain sight only 50 yards away; and this time she swooped at me when I climbed the tree; two eggs nearly ready to hatch might have made her unusually anxious; these eggs must have been laid very early in January. The nest was at least 45 feet from the ground in a slender Caribbean pine; it was made of pine twigs and grasses and lined with green and dry pine needles; it measured 15 inches in diameter and 10 inches high and was 4 inches deep inside.

Still another type of nesting was seen on February 15 in Glades County. The nest, containing the usual two eggs, was only 15 feet from the ground in a small live oak at the very edge of a mixed hammock of cabbage palmettos and oaks; it was lined with inner bark and oak leaves. Birds shot in this vicinity are clearly referable to this race.

Eggs: Two eggs form the usual set for this hawk, but occasionally three are laid. They are indistinguishable from those of alleni, with surprisingly little average difference in size. The measurements of 39 eggs average 51.8 by 41.5 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 57 by 43, 55 by 44.8, 44.5 by 41.2, and 50.3 by 37.5 millimeters.

What has been said about the food habits and behavior of the Florida red-shouldered hawk applies equally well to this smaller race. If anything, the southern Florida birds are tamer, less shy, and more in evidence along the roadsides. Both races are resident in Florida and begin nesting in midwinter.

TEXAS RED-SHOULDERED HAWK
BUTEO LINEATUS TEXANUS Bisho
HABITS

Based on a series of 16 adults and 6 immature birds collected near Corpus Christi and Brownsville, Tex., Dr. Louis B. Bishop (1912) gave the above name to the red-shouldered hawk of southern Texas, describing it as:

Similar to Butco lineatus clegans, but breast usually more spotted with buffy, the dark shaft lines of chest more conspicuous and the head and back more rufous. These Texas birds are much more richly colored below than fall specimens of B, 1. lincotus from Connecticut, having the chest and breast uniform bright cinnamon rufous and the abdomen, tibiae and lower tail-coverts bright buff heavily barred with cinnamon rufous. They are larger than B. ~l. aZle,si from Florida and have the head and neck not grayish but even more rufous than liaeetus.

Six young birds collected at the same time differ from the description of young B. 1. elcgans by having the pale spaces on the Outer webs of the primaries as large as in B. 1. Ziacotus. From the latter they dtffer by having the lower parts, especially tile tibiae, more huffy and the dark markings larger: sagittate or cuneiform instead of oval: and numerous even on the tibiae, which are slightly If at all spotted In B. 1. linen tus. Young B. 1. allcnj is smaller and has less buff in rhe plumage, and the dark markings below are even heavier than in the Texas race.

The 1931 A. 0. U. check-list gives the range of this race as “central southern Texas south into Tamaulipas, Mexico.” Some confusion exists in previous literature; the red-shouldered hawks in different parts of Texas have been referred to as alleni or as elegan8 by earlier writers. The range of alleni extends into eastern and northern Texas, but just how far does not seem to be known. The evidence seems to show that texa’nus ranges at least as far north and west as Corpus Christi and Austin. That some of the earlier writers referred to this bird as elegans before texanus was named is not surprising, as the two birds are much alike.

Unlike the Florida bird, the Texas redshoulder is essentially a bird of the heavily timbered river bottoms. It is decidedly the commonest large hawk in Texas and in certain favorable localities is really abundant. William Hahn, Jr. (1927), says that along the Nueces River one “can often count anywhere from 10 to 25 in the air at one time.” This doubtless refers to the courtship season, which begins in February and which Walter B. Savary tells me lasts for about a month. At this season the birds may be seen circling in pairs over the treetops, calling almost constantly. These river-bottom forests are often extensive and very dense, with many trees of enormous size: elms, pecans, hickories, cottonwoods, live oaks, pin oaks, and hackberries.

Nesting: The nesting habits are very similar to those of the northern red-shouldered hawk, except that they are often much more concentrated in favorable localities. Mr. Hahn (1927) writes:

I noticed that these birds will sometimes build their nests real close to each other. In one instance I coilected four sets in one clump of trees that was not a half-mile square. It also had the fifth set in it when I had to leave.

Most of the nests found were In elms, live oaks, and hackberry trees, all were in forks of the limb. The nests measured anywhere from 14 inches to over 2 feet across and from 6 inches to 15 Inches deep, The larger ones were those used year after year, as very few were new ones. These hawks often dart at you when you go to their nests and on two occasions I had them strike me in the hack and fly away uttering a very harsh scream. The nests are made of twigs, Spanish moss, lined with green leaves or some green substance alt the tIme, and some moss, also feathers from the bird’s body.

George F. Simmons (1915) describes a nest, found in Harris County, Tex., that was only “thirty feet up in a small pine tree”; it was “neatly lined with quite a quantity of fresh, green and fragrant pine needles.” The other nests which he “located were all in pines, from 40 to 80 feet from the ground, generally in open pine woods with little under brush.” Elsewhere he says (1925) that the nest is placed from “30 to 55, rarely 75, feet up in tallest bottomland trees, in topmost crotch where several limbs branch out from main trunk to form a heavy fork, generally in cedar elm, but often in tall pecan, cottonwood or live oak trees.”

Eggs: The Texas red-shouldered hawk lays two to four eggs, generally three. These are indistinguishable from eggs of the northern race. The measurements of 50 eggs average 53 by 42.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 57.2 by 44.8, 53 by 46, and 49.9 by 39.1 millimeters.

Food: The food of this hawk is much like that of other redshouldered hawks. It seldom attacks poultry but lives mainly on small mammals, snakes, and frogs. It has been recorded as killing some birds, such as quail, cardinals, and various sparrows. Its feeding habits are mainly beneficial.