ORNITHOLOGIST
—AND—
OÖLOGIST.
| $1.00 per | Joseph M. Wade, Editor and Publisher. | Single Copy |
| Annum. | Established, March, 1875. | 10 Cents. |
| VOL. VIII. | BOSTON, MARCH, 1883. | No. 3. |
Among the Buteos.
The voices of our New England Buzzardsare again ringing through theirold haunts, and it may now be seasonableto review my local notes ontheir breeding habits last Spring. Inshort, then, I took 104 eggs. And fromother nests in my circle of observationwere taken or destroyed by farmers, hawk-huntersand others, sixty more eggs andyoung birds. So until a more favoredbreeding range is made known I shallclaim this to be the home of the Buteos.A correspondent in Rochester writes thathe thinks as many eggs can be taken yearlyin that vicinity, but until this is shown tobe true I shall not believe the distributionof species is so equal. If this article couldbe accompanied by a good physical map ofNorwich and its environs, it would helpgreatly to support my claims. An irregularline drawn around the city just outsidethe suburbs would pass through the breedingplaces of sixteen pairs of Red-shoulderedHawks which I marked down the secondweek in April. Except a few hemlocks,the groves and strips of first growthare all deciduous and nearly all nut-bearing.The red squirrel, which is not so relentlesslyshot down as his gray cousin, isamazingly plenty in these suburban woods.While skating yesterday on Yantic cove,within the city limits, I saw seven squirrelsplaying in the small patch above Christ’schurch on the river bank. Every one whohas climbed to nests of young Buteosnearly fledged, must have been astonishedat the great quantity of these youngrodents, supplied by the parent birds. Inone nest of Red-tailed Hawks I have seenportions of nine red squirrels, and fromanother have counted out on the groundseven entire bodies. A game bird or chickennow and then, but red squirrels forevery day bill-of-fare. Mousing, MasterButeo will go. And frogging, too, for Ihave several times surprised him in muddysloughs in the woods, and field collectorsoften are called to notice the black mud onfresh Hawk’s eggs. Given then a greatfood supply and the species that follow itwill be abundant. Over the grove of secondgrowths to the left of Love Lane,last Spring, I saw a pair of Red-shoulderedHawks hovering for days in succession.I knew they were not breeding inthe patch, as they had not done so informer years, and there were but three oldCrow’s nests very low down. But to bevery sure I examined the grove repeatedlywith care and found it to be alive with redsquirrels. In one apple-tree hole was alitter of six; in the butt of an oak werefive with eyes unopened, and the conspicuousoutside nests were many. A BarredOwl clung to the top of a white birch withone claw, and was tearing away at a squirrel’snew d