XXXI 



Audubon's Oakacaea; Mexican Buzzard 

 362. Sub-Family, polyhorinae caracara 



This big carrion eating bird possesses many of the 

 traits of Hawks, but more of those of Vultures, with 

 which the Buzzard associates; it is about twenty-two 

 inches in length and is found along the southern maritime 

 border of the United States from Florida to the mouth 

 of the Eio Grande River. (Fig. 42.) 



The bird feeds on or near the ground along with 

 the Black and Turkey Vultures ; it is of a general blackish 

 color with throat, upper breast and neck of a dirty white, 

 crossed by blackish bars. It has a well-defined ashen 

 crest; the tail is white, barred with black. In many re- 

 spects this Buzzard resembles the Osprey. It builds 

 its nest in low trees, lays two or three cream-colored eggs, 

 marked with rich reddish-brown splotches, and is gre- 

 garious while feeding. 



While I was doing some field work near Lake Okee- 

 chobee, Florida, I first met with the Caracara and not 

 having posted myself on the bird, I was much puzzled as 

 to its identity. The natives of that locality called it 

 the Mexican Buzzard and treated it with much contempt, 

 on all occasions, by calling it many other unprintable 

 names. It was associating with Black Vultures, as they 

 fed on dead fish and putrid alligators. It would perch 

 on a fence post or dead stump of a tree near a carcass, 

 and at every opportunity, when the Vultures left an 

 opening in their circle around the carrion, the Buzzard 

 would dart in, pull off a billfuU of flesh and return to the 

 perch greedily to devour the filthy decayed mass. 



The next time I met this bird was near the mouth 

 of the Rio Grande, in Texas. It was there associated 

 with a Harris Buzzard, Parabutes tmicinctus, locally 

 known as the Mexican Eagle. This latter bird possesses 

 many of the traits of the Caracara. Truly, ''birds of a 

 feather flock together." 



109 



