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Chicken Hawk (Ad Upper parts dark grayish) (II)

Ad. - Upper parts dark grayish fuscous-brown, more or less edged with rufous, ochraceous - buff, and whitish; four outer primaries "notched," all barred with black and white; lesser wing-coverts rufous, forming a conspicuous "shoulder" patch; tail black or fuscous, with four or five white cross-bars and a white tip; throat streaked with blackish; rest of under parts rufous or ochraceous-buff, everywhere barred with white or whitish. Im.- Upper parts much as in the adult; basal part of the primaries mostly ochraceous-buff, fading to whitish on the inner web, with broken bars of fuscous; lesser wing-coverts conspicuously margined with rufous or rufouschestnut: tail dark grayish brown, indistinctly barred with fuscous, and on FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. the basal half with more or less rufous, the inner webs of the feathers with sometimes white bars; under parts white or whitish, streaked or spotted with black or blackish, the legs sometimes barred with rufous. ♂ L., 18.30; W., 12.50; T., 8.00; B. from N., 75.

L., 20-35: W., 13.50; T., 9.00.

FIG. 69. Four-notched primaries of Red-shouldered Hawk. (Reduced.) Remarks.- Adults of this species may always be known by the rich rufous lesser wing-coverts. Immature birds are sometimes confused with the young of the Red-tailed or Broad-winged Hawks. From the former they may be distinguished by their small size, rufous margins of the lesser wing-coverts ochraceous-buff markings on the primaries, and the continuously streaked under parts; from the latter they differ in having four instead of three outer primaries "notched," in being larger, and in having ochraceous-buff on the primaries.

Range.-Eastern North America, north to Nova Scotia and Manitoba; resident nearly throughout its range. Washington, common P. R. Sing Sing, common P. R. Cambridge, common P. R., less common in winter. Nest, in trees, thirty to sixty feet from the ground. Eggs, three to six, dull white, generally more or less sprinkled, spotted, or blotched with cinnamon-brown or chocolate, 2.15 x 1.65. The present species and the Red-tailed Hawk are the birds to which the names Chicken Hawk and Hen Hawk are most frequently misapplied. Being both common species whose habits render them easily observed, they are often unjustly made to suffer for the sins of their bird-killing relatives of the genus Accipiter.

The farmer sees a Hawk sailing in wide circles above him, uttering its fierce, screaming cry of keè-you, keè-you. While he is watching it a sly, low-flying Accipiter slips by him and makes a sudden dash into the poultry yard. The farmer does not discriminate; a Hawk is a Hawk, and, shaking his fist at the bird in the air, he vows vengeance at the first opportunity.

The Red-shouldered Hawk is at most times of the year a bird of the woods. Particularly does it like low woods watered with small streams from which it can obtain its favorite food of frogs. Its note is one of the common sounds of summer, and can be heard when the bird is almost lost to sight far up in the sky. It is frequently imitated by the Blue Jay. FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. "Of 220 stomachs examined, 3 contained poultry; 12, other birds; 102, mice; 40, other mammals; 20, reptiles; 39, batrachians; 92, insects; 16, spiders; 7, crawfish; 1, earthworms; 2, offal; 3, fish; and 14 were empty" (Fisher). 339a. B. 1. alleni Ridgw. FLORIDA RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.-Adults of this species may easily be distinguished from those of B. lineatus by their smaller size, grayish white head, with black shaft streaks and no rufous, the smaller fuscous tips on the scapulars and interscapulars, which do not conceal the ashy gray bases of the feathers, by the whitish or grayish cheeks and throat, and the ochraceous-buff, indistinctly barred under parts. Immature birds are very similar to those of B. lineatus, and can be distinguished only by their smaller size and darker color. ♂ W., 11.00; T., 7.50; B., 1.20.