Red-shouldered Hawk
Buteo lineatus (Gmelin, JF, 1788)
Photo © Kris Webb
STATUS
North America and Northeast Mexico. Polytypic.
OVERVIEW
Species not admitted nationally (BOU 1971).
NOT PROVEN
0). 1863 Highland Kingussie, Badenoch & Strathspey, obtained, 26th February.
(E. C. Newcome, Ibis 1865: 549; Gray, 1871; Harting, 1872; Harvie-Brown & Buckley, 1896).
[BOU, 1883; BOU, 1915; W. B. Alexander & R. S. R. Fitter, British Birds 48: 5].
History Edward Clough Newcome (1865) in The Ibis, Vol. VII. p. 549, says: 'Some months ago I bought of Mr. Baker, the birdstuffer at Cambridge, the skin of a Buzzard, which, on inquiry, I am informed was shot by J. M'Donald, Feb. 26, 1863, at Kingussie, in Inverness-shire. From him it was purchased, with a lot of Common Buzzards and other birds, by Mr. Mansfield, the well-known dealer, who sold it to Mr. Baker. The skin has been seen by Mr. J. H. Gurney and Mr. P. L. Sclater, the latter of whom tells me that it is of a young Buteo lineatus, a North American bird, which, I believe, has not hitherto been killed in this country.'
Gray (1871: 49) says: 'A young specimen of this North American bird was shot at Kingussie, in Inverness-shire, on 26th February, 1863, by J. McDonald, and sold by him, with a lot of Common Buzzards, to Mr. Mansfield, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Baker of Cambridge. It is now in the collection of Edward Clough Newcome, Esq., of Feltwell Hall, Brandon, who sent a notice of the occurrence to the Editor of the Ibis in September, 1865.'
Not admitted nationally in their first List of British Birds (BOU 1883) or in their second edition who state that the record is probably due to a mistake by the dealer (BOU 1915).
Harvie-Brown & Buckley (1896 (2): 43) say: 'It appears, however, to have been a skin, and to have passed through two dealers' hands before coming into the possession of Mr. Newcome of Feltwell Hall, Brandon, Norfolk."
W. B. Alexander & R. S. R. Fitter (1955) in British Birds, Vol. XLVIII. p. 5, say: 'A somewhat similar record to the last [Red-tailed Hawk], square-bracketed by both BOU Committees on the ground that it was "probably due to the mistake of a dealer". However, the bird moves south in the eastern United States in autumn and the record is not inherently more unlikely than the Eastern Goshawk or the American Sparrowhawk.'
Comment Baker was found to be unreliable (I. C. T. Nisbet, British Birds 54: 345). Not acceptable.
