Habits. This Hawk is a Mexican and Guatemalan species which occasionally strays into our borders in Arizona and in Southern California. Dr. Cooper was the first of our naturalists to meet with this species within the United States, shooting an individual on the 23d of February, 1862, thirty miles north of San Diego, and within five of the coast. It was associating with specimens of B. insignatus and other Hawks wintering there, and seemed rather sluggish and tame. He saw no other Black Hawks in that neighborhood. Two years afterwards, September 24, 1864, Dr. Coues also procured a single specimen on the Gila River. He regards the species as restricted, within our borders, to the warm valley of the Gila and the Lower Colorado. We possess no information in regard to any distinctive specific habits it may possess. This species was first described by Dr. Sclater from a Guatemalan specimen.
The bird described as B. albonotatus is presumed to be identical with this species. It was observed by Mr. Salvin on the southern slope of the Cordillera, in Guatemala, which appears to be the true habitat of this species, but even there it cannot be said to be common. He states that, like many others of its class, it is a feeder on beetles and locusts.
Buteo lineatus, Gmelin.
Var. lineatus, Gmelin.
RED-SHOULDERED HAWK.
Falco lineatus, Gmel. Syst. Nat. p. 268, 1789.—Lath. Ind. Orn. p. 27, 1790; Syn. I, 56, sp. 36, 1781; Gen. Hist. I, 268, 1821.—Daud. Tr. Orn. II, 158, 1800.—Shaw, Zoöl. VII, 153, 1812.—Wils. Am. Orn. pl. liii, f. 3, 1808.—Aud. Orn. Biog. I, 296, 1831; Syn. p. 7, 1839. Cuvier, Reg. Anim. ed. 2, I, 334, 1829. Buteo lineatus, Jard. (Wils.) Am. Orn. II, 290, 1832.—Aud. Syn. p. 7, 1839.—Brewer, (Wils.) Am. Orn. 684, 1852.—Cassin, Birds Cal. & Tex. Syn. 99, 1854; Birds N. Am. 1858, 28.—Bonap. Comp. Av. p. 19, 1850.—Kaup, Web. Falk. Mus. Senck. 1845, p. 261.—Strickl. Orn. Syn. I, 30, 1855.—Brewer, Oölogy, 1857, 28, pl. iii, f. 25.—Max. Cab. Journ. VI, 1858, 19.—Gray, Hand List, I, 7, 1869. Poecilopternis lineatus, Kaup, Mon. Fal. Cont. Orn. p. 76, 1850. Falco hyemalis, Gmel. Syst. Nat. 274, 1789.—Lath. Ind. Orn. 35, 1790; Syn. I, 79, sp. 62, 1781; Gen. Hist. I, p. 91.—Daud. Tr. Orn. II, 110, 1800.—Shaw, Zoöl. VII, 153, 1812.—Wils. Am. Orn. pl. 35, fig. I, 1808.—Bonap. Ann. Lyc. N. Y. II, 33; Isis, p. 1138, 1832.—Aud. B. Am. pl. lvi, 71, 1831; Orn. Biog. I, 364, 1831. F. hyemalis, var. Lath. Ind. Orn. Supp. p. 8, 1801; Syn. Supp. II, 39, 1802. Circus hyemalis, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. pl. vii, 1807.—James. Wils. Am. Orn. I, 88 & 87, 1808. B. hyemalis, Less. Tr. Orn. p. 81, 1831.—Bonap. Eur. & N. Am. B. p. 3, 1838. Astur hyemalis, Jard. Wils. Orn. II, 72, 1808.—Vieill. Enc. Méth. III, 1273, 1823. Nisus hyemalis, Cuv. Reg. An. ed. 2, I, 334, 1829. Buteo fuscus, Vieill. Ois. Am. Sept. pl. v, 1807. Astur fuscus, Bonap. Oss. Cuv. Reg. An. p. 37, 1830. Falco buteoides, Nutt. Man. I, 100, 1832. Buteo cooperi (not of Cassin), Allen, Am. Nat. III, 1869, 518 (young of B. lineatus!)
Sp. Char. Adult male (32,509, Washington, D. C., January). Head, neck, and interscapulars deep rufous (above becoming darker posteriorly), each feather with a medial stripe of blackish-brown. Throat and cheeks almost destitute of rufous tinge, the ground being dull white,—the dusky forming an indistinct “mustache,” and an imperfect, obsolete collar (formed by confluent, or suffused streaks), across the throat. Breast, sides, abdomen, and tibiæ rather light rufous, becoming paler posteriorly; breast with shaft-streaks of blackish; the rufous of sides of breast almost unvaried; abdomen, sides, and middle of the breast, with transverse bars of ochraceous white; tibiæ uniform pale ochraceous; anal region and lower tail-coverts, immaculate white. Lesser wing-coverts chestnut-rufous, feathers with black shaft-streaks, these becoming larger posteriorly; scapulars and middle wing-coverts edged broadly with rufous, and obsoletely spotted on inner webs with white.—this somewhat exposed; secondaries dark clear brown, tipped and crossed with two (exposed) bands of white; primaries black, fading at tips into dilute grayish-brown, and with quadrate spots of white on outer webs. Rump uniform blackish-brown; upper tail-coverts tipped and banded with black. Tail clear brownish-black, crossed with six sharply defined narrow bands of white, the last of which is terminal, and the first two concealed by the upper coverts. Lining of the wing nearly uniform pale rufous, with very sparse, deeper rufous, somewhat transverse spots; under surface of primaries silvery white, crossed by broad bands, these where the white is clearest being pale rufous, bordered with dusky, but as the white grows more silvery they darken into black; the longest (fourth) has eight of these spots, including the subterminal, very broad one. Fourth quill longest; fifth, just perceptibly shorter; third, a little shorter; second, considerably longer than sixth; first equal to ninth. Wing, 13.00; tail, 8.50; tarsus, 2.90; middle toe, 1.33.
Adult female (11,991, Washington, D. C.; Dr. W. Wallace). Generally similar to the male, but rufous more extended, this tinging the outer webs of secondaries and primaries. On the under parts the rufous is rather deeper, and the tibiæ are strongly barred, and even the lower tail-coverts have obsolete spots of the same. Wing, 13.75; tail, 9.00; tarsus, 2.90; middle toe, 1.50.
Younger (41,683, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Coues). Upper plumage precisely as in adult, but the black prevailing on head above, and nape. Beneath ochraceous-white, deepest on the tibiæ; breast, abdomen, sides, and tibiæ, with diamond-shaped spots of dark rufous-brown, connected along the shaft of the feathers, running thus, in a peculiar, longitudinal, chain-like series (19.50; 42.50; cere, legs, and feet bright chrome-yellow; anterior scales of tarsus with greenish tinge).
Young male (No. 1,210). Ground-color of head, neck, and under parts white; feathers of head and neck, with medial stripes of dark clear vandyke-brown, leaving a superciliary space, and the ear-coverts scarcely striped; a blackish suffusion over cheeks, forming a “mustache,” and large longitudinal spot of the same on middle of throat; breast, abdomen, sides, and flanks, with rather sparse, irregularly sagittate spots of clear vandyke-brown, those on the sides of breast more longitudinal; tibiæ, with a faint ochraceous tinge, and with sparse, small, and irregular specks of brown; lower tail-coverts with a very few distant isolated bars of the same. Upper parts generally, clear dark vandyke-brown; interscapulars and wing-coverts edged (most broadly beneath the surface) with pale rufous; middle wing-coverts with much white spotting on upper webs, partially exposed; wing-coverts generally, and scapulars, narrowly bordered with white; secondaries narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with about four (exposed) bands of paler grayish-brown; primaries inclining to black; faintly margined at ends, with whitish; outer webs anterior to the emargination, rufous-white, with distant, narrow bars of blackish, these widening on inner quills; upper tail-coverts white with transverse spots of blackish. Tail dark vandyke-brown, narrowly tipped with white, and crossed with numerous narrow bands of pale grayish-brown, these obsolete towards the base. Lining of the wing pale ochraceous, with a few irregularly cordate spots of dark brown toward edge of wing; under surface of primaries mostly white, the dusky bars not extending across the web, except on inner quills. Wing, 13.25; tail, 9.30; tarsus, 2.85; middle toe, 1.40.
Young female (11,994, Washington, D. C., January; C. Drexler). Almost precisely similar; tibiæ unspotted; light bands of the tail more sharply defined basally, and pale mottled rufous, instead of pale ashy brown. Wing, 14.50; tail, 9.60; tarsus, 3.10; middle toe, 1.45.
Hab. Eastern N. Am.; south to Florida; west to Texas and the tributaries of the Missouri.