HARRIS'S HAWK 145 



Behavior. — Harris's hawk lias been referred to as a sluggisli, heavy 

 bird, slow of flight and not graceful, but there is much evidence to 

 the contrary. No very slow or sluggish hawk could catch the lively 

 creatures recorded in its food. I have seen it chasing a western red- 

 tail and it has been seen to attack and drive away the big ferruginous 

 roughleg. Vernon Bailey (1902) writes: 



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

 Harris hawlv 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 perching he will sometimes stand 

 calmly on one foot looking down upon you with a 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 sitting on a low branch 

 feasting on a wood rat captured at the door of its stick house close by. If you 

 chance near the hawks' nest a long harsh Buteo-like scream may make you 

 look up to find one or both anxious birds circling overhead. 



The following is from some notes sent by Maj. Allan Brooks to 

 Dr. John B. May : 



Harris's hawk is a dual personality, a sort of Jekyll and Hyde character. A 

 casual acquaintance with this species will probably show one, or more probably 

 a pair, of these hawks sitting in the top of a tree that rises above the general 

 scrub, sitting quietly like Buteos apparently taking little interest in their sur- 

 roundings as they soak up the morning sun. Presently they will take flight, 

 mounting into the air in easy spirals, higher and higher into the blue, and that 

 will probably be the last you will see of them. But to see this hawk in action 

 one has to be afield early while the mists still hang over the resacas. Then 

 Mr. Hyde appears, a flutter of wings as a flock of teal rise in confusion with a 

 dark shape striking right and left among them with all the dash of a goshawk. 

 If unsuccessful, the next attack may be on a group of small herons, one of which 

 may be singled out and followed until killed. Very often a pair of these hawks 

 combine to secure their quarry, and I have seen a snowy heron shared amicably 

 after it had fallen a victim to one of these raptores. In action and flight it 

 combines many of the characteristics of the Buteos, marsh hawk, and goshawk. 



Field marks. — Harris's hawk may be easily recognized, in adult 

 plumage, by the dark-brown uniform color of body and head, appear- 

 ing almost black, and by the bright rufous wing coverts and thighs; 

 the white rump and long white-tipped tail are characteristic in any 

 plumage. Its shape and flight are not unlike those of the marsh 

 hawk. 



Fall. — These hawks apparently gather into large flocks in fall and 

 wander about. W. Lee Chambers (1924) reports two large flights, 

 as observed by Frank Eichmond, near Calexico, Calif. On October 

 23 between 400 and 500 Harris's hawks "were scattered over an area of 

 about 80 acres in a field along a highway." As early as August 28, 

 1923, he saw about 250 of them; "some were perched in small trees 



