172 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



in hawks' and owla' nests in two days as I did by trapping for a 

 week." 



Mr. Sumner found in a nest parts of seven ground squirrels, one 

 pocket gopher, and two cottontail rabbits. J. Paul Miller (1931) 

 made a study of five red-tailed hawks' nests in the Big Bend country 

 in eastern Washington and summarizes the food results as follows: 

 "The food brought to the nests consisted entirely of Columbian 

 Ground Squirrels {Citellus c. colwrribianus (Ord)) with the exception 

 of one meadow mouse {Microtus sp.), and although birds of various 

 species were numerous in the vicinity of all the nests, they did not 

 seem to be disturbed by the hawks. About six squirrels per day 

 from the time the young hatched until they were nearly feathered 

 seem the average number provided. This is strong evidence as to 

 the benefits which were locally derived from the activities of these 

 birds." 



Mr. Finley (1905) says of the food found in the nest he studied: 

 "On the first visits we found the remains of quail and pheasants in 

 the aerie. One morning we saw the mangled body of a screech 

 owl; almost a case of hawk eat hawk. Later in the season when 

 the banks of the Columbia overflowed, and covered most of the sur- 

 rounding country, the old hawk did not abandon his own preserve. 

 He turned his attention entirely to fishing. Where the carp and 

 catfish fed about the edges of the ponds he had no trouble in catch- 

 ing plenty to eat. Twice we found carp over a foot in length in the 

 aerie. On our last visit we picked up the head bones of seven catfish 

 in the nest." 



The following quotation from one of A. W. Anthony's (1893) 

 Lower California papers is doubly interesting: 



At La Grulla a pair of redtails were nesting near our camp. The male was 

 a very liglit bird, while the female was so dark as to be several times mistaken 

 for the dark phase of sxcainsoni. On May 16 the female was shot as she rose 

 from the nest, and on skinning her I found in her stomach the remains of a 

 Cyanocephalus and a nearly complete rattlesnake that must have measured 

 over two feet in length. On the following day the male was seen flying about 

 the nest with another female fully as dark as his former mate, and I was 

 surprised to see her feeding young ten days or two weeks old. I had sup- 

 posed the nest still contained eggs. As it was such a clear case of adoption 

 I concluded to leave them undisturbed, but the unfortunate male was doomed 

 a few days later to lose his second mate which was shot by a member of our 

 party ; upon dissection this bird was also found to have a large rattlesnake 

 coiled up in her stomach. We frequently saw redtails sailing about over the 

 meadows with large snakes hanging from their talons. 



In connection with the above dangerous feeding habit, it is in- 

 teresting to note that J. S. Hunter (1898) reports that a red-tailed 

 hawk was seen attacking a rattlesnake, which bit the hawk twice and 



