144 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



parts are white, stron<>ly suffused with "warm buff" on the breast, 

 with large, tear-shaped spots of "warm sepia" ; the thighs are usually- 

 pale buff, with a few very narrow dusky bars; in some birds the 

 thighs are "Verona brown", spotted or barred with white and rufous. 



This plumage is worn during the first summer and fall; I have 

 seen it in birds taken from May to December. But usually during 

 the fall, winter, and spring a change toward adult plumage takes 

 place by means of a prolonged, gradual molt. The buffy edgings 

 wear away, and much of the adult body plumage is acquired before 

 summer, leaving the under parts dark and only narrowly streaked 

 with white. I have seen young birds in full molt of body, wings, 

 and tail in May and June. ApjDarently after this first complete molt, 

 which has required so many months, the young bird has acquired a 

 plumage that is practically adult, but I am not sure that it does not 

 require another year to attain full perfection. I have seen adults 

 molting wings and tail in December. 



Food. — Mr. Sennett (1879) says: "I found in the crops of those 

 I obtained mice, lizards, birds, and often the Mexican striped gopher 

 {SperinophUus mcxiccmus) , proving them active hunters, instead of 

 the sluggish birds they appeared the year before at BroAvnsville." 



Some observers say that it consorts with vultures and caracaras 

 and lives largely on carrion ; other good observers say that they have 

 never seen it do so. It must be a good hunter, and it probably prefers 

 fresh game, for various mammals, birds, and reptiles have been 

 detected in its food, such as cottontail rabbits, wood rats, Florida 

 gallinule, sora rail, night herons, green-winged teal, gilded flicker, 

 and small snakes. Vernon Bailey (1902) found a nest containing 

 young "to be fairly covered with bones of wood rats. There were a 

 dozen skulls, and bones, legs, skin, and fur were strewn over the 

 nest." 



Dr. Loye Miller (1930), who found a nest nearly 40 feet up in a 

 Cottonwood in southeastern California, writes : 



On the edge of the uest were two fresh bird bodies, one a Florida gallinule 

 {Galliniila galeata) and the other a Sora {Porsana Carolina). The Gallinule 

 had been quite well plucked, most of the contour feathers and all the strong 

 flight feathers having been removed. The hawk's talons had pierced the pelvis 

 back of the acetabulum and the rib basket in the region of the posterior dorsals. 

 The throat had been torn out, but otherwise nothing had been consumed. The 

 Sora was beheaded, but otherwise was quite intact. 



On a previous occasion some brief mention was made of the stomach contents 

 of this species, the evidence being that it is an aggressively raptorial bird. 

 Green-winged Teal and Gilded Flicker were identified in the stomachs. Add 

 to these species the Florida Gallinule and the Sora, both secretive birds of 

 rather dense cover, and the impression grows that the Harris Hawk is no 

 mean hunter. Furthermore, he plucks his kill almost as completely as does a 

 falcon, even wrenching out the strongly attached primaries. 



