A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 3 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
At times this Hawk is seen to fly high, in a desultory manner, with
quick but irregular movements of the wings, now moving in short and
unequal circles, pausing to examine the objects below, and then again
descending rapidly and following a course only a few feet from the
ground, carefully examining each patch of small bushes in search of
small birds.
Besides the smaller birds, young chickens, and pigeons, this Hawk has
been known to occasionally feed on small reptiles and insects, as also
upon the smaller quadrupeds.
Mr. Audubon speaks of having met with three nests of this species,
and all in different situations. One was in a hole in a rock on the
banks of the Ohio River; another was in the hollow of a broken branch,
near Louisville, Ky., and the third in the forks of a low oak, near
Henderson, Ky. In the first case, the nest was slight, and simply
constructed of a few sticks and some grasses, carelessly interwoven, and
about two feet from the entrance of the hole. In the second instance
there was no nest whatever, but in the third the birds were engaged
in the construction of an elaborate nest. The number of the eggs was
four in one instance, and five in another. He describes them as almost
equally rounded at both ends; their ground-color white, with a livid
tinge, but scarcely discernible amid the numerous markings and blotches
of reddish-chocolate with which they were irregularly covered. In
a nest which was large and elaborately constructed of sticks, and
contained five eggs, found by Dr. H. R. Storer in Concord, Mass.,
there was a single egg which nearly corresponds with this description.
It is, however, the only one among many specimens that at all agrees
with it. This specimen is a little more than usually elongate, and its
ground-color, which is a purplish-white, is nearly concealed by its
blotches of various shades of sepia-brown. In every other instance the
egg is very nearly spherical, the ground-color white, and beautifully
marked with large confluent blotches of sepia, varying in depth from
quite a light to a very dark shade. In one, these confluent markings
form a broad belt around the centre of the egg. In others, they are
chiefly distributed about the larger end. The contrast between the white
ground and the dark confluent dashes of brown is very striking. Except
in size, the eggs of this bird bear a marked resemblance to those of the
Sparrow Hawk of Europe. In a few instances, the brown markings have an
intermixture of red and purple. The egg measures 1.35 by 1.15 inches.
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