154 FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 



goshawk are very similar to those of its eastern relative. It is 

 equally destructive to small game of all kinds ... as well as to 

 the fowls of the poultry yard. While nowhere abundant, it seems 

 to be pretty generally distributed throughout the Blue Mountain 

 region of Oregon and Washington, and breeds in suitable localities 

 where food is plenty. Duriug spring and summer it is seldom seen 

 in the more open districts, though it is abundant enough later on, 

 when the heavy snows drive the game into the foothills and lower 

 valleys. . . . Besides a shrill scream of anger, they have a call-note 

 resembling the word ' keeah, keeah,' or ' kree-ah,' frequently re- 

 peated, this note being often uttered in the early spring." (Bendire.) 



GENUS PARABUTEO. 



335. Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi {Aud.). Harris Hawk. 



Lores nearly naked and bristled ; middle toe much shorter than naked 

 front of tarsus ; inner webs of five outer quills cut out. Adults : upper 

 parts dark brown, reddish hrown on shoidders, under wing coverts and 

 thighs ; tail black with white base, white coverts, and broad white band at 

 tip. Young : under parts broadly streaked with dark brown on buffy and 

 whitish ground ; upper parts dark brown, streaked on head and neck with 

 yellowish brown ; back marked with rufous, scapulars deep rufous ; rump 

 white ; tail like adult, but with white terminal band narrower, and inner 

 webs of feathers barred. Male : length 17.50-21.00, wing 12.35-13.75, 

 tail 9.80-10.20, bill .90-.U5. Female: length 21-24, wing 14.2.5-14.50, tail 

 10.80-11.00, bill 1.08-1.10. 



Distribution. — From Mississippi to southern California, and south 

 through Lower California and other parts of Mexico to Panama. 



Nest. — A platform of sticks, lined with grass, bark, moss, and roots 

 placed in cactus, fSpanish bayonet, mesquite, or other trees. Eggs : 2 to 4, 

 soiled white, occasionally greenish, unmarked, or spotted lightly with pale 

 brown or lavender. 



Food. — Largely offal, mammals, small reptiles, and occasionally birds. 



In southern Texas the rich rufous marks and swift, clear-cut flight 

 of the Harris hawk soon become pleasantly familiar, for he is one of 

 the hawks that are both common and tame on the coast prairies. He 

 is so tame that as you drive by a telegraph pole on which he is perch- 

 ing he will sometimes stand calmly on one foot looking down upon 

 you with statue -like indifference. In the mesquite thickets you 

 may meet one at close quarters as he dashes under the thorny bushes 

 in quest of wood rats, ground squirrels, and the small game that 

 abounds in these dwarf forests ; and sometimes, as happened one 

 day when we drove along the Nueces River, you will see him sit- 

 ting on a low branch feasting on a wood rat captured at the door of 

 its stick house close by. If you chance near the haw^ks' nest a long 

 harsh Buteo-like scream may make you look up to find one or both 

 anxious birds circling overhead. A nest that was pointed out to 

 me by the owners in Texas was in the top of a moss-hung hack- 



