230 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



very likely to prowl around a gopher-hole for his dinner, or take 

 pot-luck at grasshoppers." McAtee (1935) says: "It is evident that 

 this species is by no means a 'bird hawk' as only 1 grouse and 9 small 

 birds were found in 111 stomachs." 



But Mr. DuBois tells me that he found in a nest, beside a sitting 

 bird, "the bodies of two young birds, seemingly longspurs." These 

 young birds crouching in the grass may have been mistaken for mice. 

 Rats, mice, and snakes are often taken. The evidence given below 

 shows that small birds have little to fear from these hawks. J. A. 

 Munro (1919) says that Maj. Allan Brooks "found seven downy 

 Ruffed Grouse in the crop of a breeding female." Mr. Cameron 

 (1913) says that this hawk often attempts to catch lark buntings 

 but seldom succeeds ; it usually swoops at them on the ground ; once 

 he saw one chase a bunting in the air, but the small bird escaped. 

 He found frogs greatly preferred by a young hawk he had in cap- 

 tivity; he writes: "So voracious was the bird's appetite that he 

 would account for six large frogs at a meal, and was often compelled 

 to disgorge those which he had swallowed whole to avoid being 

 choked. I have known him to devour an entire rattlesnake at one 

 time." 



Dr. John B. May (1935) saw several Swainson's hawks catching 

 clobson flies (adult hellgrammites) on the wing; these flying insects 

 were caught in the hawk's talons and eaten in the air after the man- 

 ner of kites. Swainson's hawk seeks its prey by soaring and circling 

 over the open jorairie, often high in the air, or watches for it while 

 perched on some dead branch, telegraph pole or fence post, or even 

 on some little eminence on the ground. Mr. Skinner says that on 

 the ground it "can walk quite easily and even run expertly. It even 

 hunts grasshoppers and crickets by running them down. At such a 

 time a lot of Swainson's hawks look much like a flock of small 

 turkey's." S. F. Rathbun tells me that he has seen Swainson's hawks 

 following a man on a tractor, and close behind the harrows with 

 which he was summer-fallowing. The man stated that these hawks 

 often do this for the purpose of catching the meadow mice and 

 gophers disturbed by the harrows. 



Behavior. — Swainson's hawk is a gentle, unobtrusive bird, living 

 in harmony with its feathered neighbors both large and small. Mr. 

 Skinner's notes contain several references to the confidence in these 

 hawks shown by sparrows, robins, and bluebirds that hopped about 

 and even sang in close proximity without showing the least sign of 

 fear. Bendire (1892) writes: "It is no unusual sight to find other 

 birds, such as the Arkansas Kingbird, Tyrannus verticalh, and Bul- 

 lock's Oriole, Icterus hiiUocl'L nesting in the same tree ; and the first- 

 mentioned species goes even further than this, sometimes construct- 



