298 RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.
When one ascends to the nest, which, by the way, is not always an
easy matter, as our Beech-trees are not only very smooth, but frequently
without any boughs to a considerable distance from the ground, as well
as of rather large size, the female bird, if she happens to be sitting, flies
off silently and alights on a neighbouring tree, to wait the result. But,
should the male, who supplies her with food, and assists in incubation,
be there, or make his appearance, he immediately sets up a hue and cry,
and plunges towards the assailant with such violence as to astonish him.
When, on several occasions, I have had the tree on which the nest was
placed cut down, I have observed the same pair, a few days after, build
another nest on a tree not far distant from the spot in which the first one
had been.
The mutual attachment of the male and the female continues during
life. They usually hunt in pairs during the whole year; and although
they build a new nest every spring, they are fond of resorting to the same
parts of the woods for that purpose. I knew the pair represented in the
Plate for three years, and saw their nest each spring placed within a few
hundred yards of the spot in which that of the preceding year was.
The young remain in the nest until fully fledged, and are fed by the
parents for several weeks after they have taken to wing, but leave them
and begin to shift for themselves in about a month, when they disperse
and hunt separately until the approach of the succeeding spring, at which
time they pair. The young birds acquire the rusty reddish colour of the
feathers on the breast and shoulders before they leave the nest. It deepens
gradually at the approach of autumn, and by the first spring they completely
resemble the old birds. Only one brood is raised each season.
Scarcely any difference of size exists between the sexes, the female being
merely a little stouter.
This Hawk seldom attacks any kind of poultry, and yet frequently
pounces on Partridges, Doves, or Wild Pigeons, as well as Red-winged
Starlings, and now and then very young rabbits. On one or two occasions,
I have seen them make their appearance at the report of my gun,
and try to rob me of some Blue-winged Teals shot in small ponds. I have
never seen them chase any other small birds than those mentioned, or
quadrupeds of smaller size than the Cotton Rat; nor am I aware of their
eating frogs, which are the common food of the Winter Falcon, an account
of which you will find, kind reader, in another part of this the first
volume of my Biography of the Birds found in the United States of
America.
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. 299
F A L C O L I N E A T T X S , Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 268.—Lath. Synops. vol. i. p. 27.— Wils.
Amer. Oniith. vol. vi. p. 86. PI. 5 3 , fig. 3 . Young Male.
F A L C O H Y E M A L I S , Ch. Bonaparte, Synops. of Birds of the United States, p. 33.
Adult Male. Plate LVI. Fig. 1.
Bill short, as broad as deep, the sides convex, the dorsal outline convex
from the base; upper mandible cerate, the edges blunt, slightly inflected,
with an obtuse lobe towards the curvature, the tip trigonal, deflected,
very acute ; lower mandible involute at the edges, a little truncate
at the end. Nostrils round, lateral, with a soft papilla in the centre.
Head rather large. Neck and body rather slender. Legs longish; tarsus
rather slender, anteriorly scutellate ; toes scutellate above, scaly on
the sides, scabrous and tuberculate beneath; middle and outer toe connected
at the base by a small membrane ; claws roundish, slender, curved,
very acute.
Plumage compact, imbricated; feathers of the head and neck narrow
towards the tip, of the back broad and rounded ; tibial feathers elongated
behind. Wings long, third and fourth primaries longest, first short.
Bill light blue at the base, bluish-black at the tip; cere, basal margin
of the bill, edges of the eyelids, and the feet, bright yellow. Iris hazel.
Claws black. Head, neck, and back, light yellowish-red, longitudinally
spotted with dark brown. Tail brownish-black, banded with greyishwhite,
the tip of the latter colour. Lesser wing-coverts bright yellowishred,
spotted with brown; larger coverts and secondary quills dusky, broadly
barred with white ; primary quills brownish-black banded with white,
the greater part of their inner webs being of the latter colour. Lower parts
of the neck and under wing-coverts light yellowish-red, the former longitudinally
lined with blackish; breast reddish-white, marked with transverse
hastate yellowish-red spots ; abdomen and under tail-coverts reddishwhite.
Tibial feathers yellowish, transversely barred with dull orange.
Length 18 inches; bill along the back 1.}, along the gap from the
tip of under mandible 1^ ; tarsus 2\.
Adult Female. Plate LVI. Fig. 1.
The female differs from the male in being a little larger, and in having
the tints lighter.