HARLAN'S HAWK 175 



observed soaring low over the snow-covered slopes on the east side of White 

 Pass. During the next week, at Carcross, they were seen daily ; apparently 

 several pairs were settled on their nesting grounds near the town. 



About Atlin these hawks were distributed throughout the lowlands; there 

 were nesting pairs at intervals of a few miles in whatever direction one 

 traveled. Although the species was thus relatively numerous, specimens were 

 hard to obtain ; the birds were remarkably wary. 



The Harlan hawk is in the Atlin region mostly a bird of the timber. The 

 sort of perch most often chosen is the top of one of the taller spruce trees, 

 often in fairly dense woods but always with such a commanding view as 

 to make approach unseen out of the question. With the exception of the dark 

 colored hawks seen in White Pass early in the season and supposed to be of 

 this species, none was observed in the open country above timber line. The 

 abundance of ground squirrels might have been supposed to be an attraction 

 to that region, too. They were extremely wary always, so much so that 

 although both birds of a pair might circle about, screaming, as long as an 

 intruder remained in their territory, it was generally impossible to approach 

 within gun shot. 



Spring. — H. V. Williams, of Grafton, N. Dak., who has collected 

 some 50 Harlan's hawks for Norman A. Wood and a few more for 

 the author, says that he never sees them in that State except on the 

 migrations; his spring dates range from April 3 to May G. A. G. 

 Lawrence's records for southern Manitoba average around April 8, 

 the earliest April 1. He says in his notes : 



On April 9, 1916, I witnessed at St. Vital, Manitoba, a large flight of red- 

 tailed hawks and Harlan's hawks. It was a tine day, and the snow had 

 partly melted away iu open places, though still deep in the woods. In the 

 afternoon a redtail was seen high overhead, then several, then more and more, 

 until when I came to a clearing I counted between 60 and 70 redtails and 

 Harlan's circling around iu two groups, the Harlan's numbering about 15 to IS. 

 There was little wind, and the birds had to flap their wings fairly frequently, 

 circling round and round, making no sound, now close together, now scattering 

 and spreading over a wide area, then reforming into a flock to continue circling 

 over the clearing. This performance continued for over an hour, the birds 

 still circling when I left. 



Nesting. — Audubon (1840) was, of course, mistaken in thinking 

 that Harlan's hawk bred in Louisiana. Its breeding range was for- 

 merl}^ supposed to include certain south-central States in which it 

 is now knov/n to occur only in winter. There are several sets of 

 eggs in collections, said to be harlani., which are undoubtedly some- 

 thing else. These may be eggs of the ferruginous roughleg, Swain- 

 son's, or western red-tailed hawk, all of which have melanistic color 

 phages. Positively identified eggs of Harlan's hawk have apparently 

 never been taken. All we really know about the nesting habits of 

 this hawk is contained in the following brief account by Mr. Swarth 

 (1926) : 



One nest was found. It was in the valley a few miles from Atlin, in rather 

 open spruce woods, just above a stretcli of marsh land. The nest was near 

 the to]) of an isolated spruce, on a brandling limb, alt<iut sixty feet from the 



