WESTERN RED-TAILED HAWK 173 



killed it. As this was in Nebraska it probably was one of the eastern 

 redtails and perhaps not accustomed to rattlesnakes. 



Behavior. — My experience with red-tailed hawks has taught me 

 that they are very shy birds ; they usually keep well out of gunshot 

 range even when they have young in the nest. But I once saw an 

 unusual exhibition of boldness and aggressiveness shown by a west- 

 ern redtail. While out with A, M. Ingersoll and J. B. Dixon, near 

 Escondido, Calif., his climber, Gus Hanson, attempted to collect 

 a set of three eggs from a nest about TO feet up in a tall sycamore. 

 One of the hawks attacked him, darting down at him time after 

 time and looping the loop above him several times. We all agreed 

 that it was the greatest exhibition of the kind we had ever seen. 



Mr. Skinner saj^s in his notes : 



Here in the Yellowstone National Park, where they are protected, these big 

 hawks become so tame they can be readily studied. Often, I have passed 

 them on stubs and telephone poles without disturbing them in the least, 

 although I might be less than 50 feet distant. 



They prey almost exclusively on rodents, and I have never seen one attack 

 a bird. The larger birds like the ducks and geese are indifferent to a red- 

 tail's presence, but the attitude of the smaller birds is even more astonishing. 

 I have seen a red-tailed hawk on a river bank with an unconcerned robin 

 on' a nearby bush. I have seen a redtail fly over a flock of conspicuous rosy 

 finches on the ground without alarming them by either its shadow or its 

 presence. 



Other small birds, such as bluebirds and juncos, have shown sim- 

 ilar indifference. On the other hand he has seen the hawks attacked 

 by crows, nutcrackers, sharp-shinned hawks, sparrow hawks, king- 

 birds, Brewer's blackbirds, and once by an Audubon's warbler. In 

 some cases the small birds were probably driving the hawk away 

 from the vicinity of their nests. He once saw a flock of seven robins 

 drive a red-tailed hawk to cover in a fir tree. He has seen the hawks 

 fighting each other quite often, usually on the wing. Once he 

 "watched a redtail flying high that would at intervals make a long, 

 swift shoot down toward another redtail flying below that would 

 turn and present its talons to meet the attack, real or pretended." 



Mr. Sumner's notes record an attack by a redtail on a horned 

 owl; the hawk dived at the owl from a height of 75 feet; the owl 

 made no effort to turn over but "received the blow of the hawk's 

 talons in the middle of its back." Another time he saw a pair of 

 hawks executing their flight maneuvers near their nest. "About ten 

 times, while they were circling near together, the male would lower 

 his legs and adjust his circles so that he came above his mate, and 

 about four times he actually touched her back, or so it seemed." As 

 illustrating the confidence that small birds have in these hawks, he 

 noted an occupied kingbird's nest and an occupied Bullock's oriole's 

 nest in the same tree with a red-tailed hawk's nest containing young. 



