This Hawk constructs its nest on tall trees, usually overhanging or near running water. The nest is like that of the Crow in its general appearance. It is constructed externally of dry twigs and sticks, intermixed with which are great quantities of the long Spanish moss peculiar to the Southern States, and lined with dry grasses, leaves, and feathers. One found by Dr. C. Kollock, of Cheraw, S. C., in May, 1855, containing young, was on a large tree, not near the trunk, but on one of the projecting branches, and difficult of approach. The eggs are described by Mr. Audubon as from four to six in number, of a greenish-white color, with a few irregular blotches of dark brown at the larger end. The drawing of an egg, obtained by Dr. Trudeau in Louisiana, and which was made by that gentleman, is very nearly spheroidal, and its measurements are, length 1.75 inches, breadth 1.56. It corresponds with Mr. Audubon’s description of the egg of this Hawk. An egg in the collection of the Smithsonian Institution, taken in Iowa by Mr. Krider, does not correspond very well with the description and figure mentioned. It measures 1.80 in length by 1.40 in breadth; its form is very regularly oval, both ends being of nearly the same shape. The ground-color is a creamy white, one end (the smaller) splashed with large confluent blotches of ferruginous, and the remainder of the surface more sparsely spotted with the same; these rusty blotches are relieved by smaller, sparser spots of very dark brown. Dr. Cooper, in a letter dated Sioux City, May 21, 1860, mentions finding the nest of this Hawk in a high tree in Northwestern Iowa, latitude 41° 30′. The bird had not begun to lay. GENUS ELANUS, SAVIGNY. _Elanus_, SAV. 1809. (Type, _Falco melanopterus_, DAUDIN.) _Milans_, BOIE, 1822. GEN. CHAR. Bill rather small and narrow, the tip normal; commissure moderately sinuated; upper outline of lower mandible greatly arched, the height at base less than half that through middle; gonys almost straight, declining downward toward tip. Nostril roundish, in middle of cere. Tarsus and toes (except terminal joint) covered with small roundish scales; under surface of claws just perceptibly flattened; sharp lateral ridge on middle claw very prominent; a very slight membrane between outer and middle toes. Second quill longest, third very slightly shorter; first just exceeding fourth; second and third with outer webs slightly sinuated; inner web of first emarginated, of second sinuated. Tail peculiar, emarginated, but the lateral feather much shorter than the middle, the one next to it being the longest. [Illustration: =5895.= ½ =5895.= ½ =5895.= ¼ _Elanus leucurus._] The species of this well-marked genus are confined to the tropical and subtropical portions of the world, and appear to be only two in number, of which one is cosmopolitan, and the other peculiar to the Old World. Species and Races.