206 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Major Bendire (1892) found two nests near Camp Harney, Oreg. ; 

 one was "in a young pine on some limbs close to the top and the trunk 

 of the tree, * * * on the outskirts of the heavy timber"; the 

 second nest "was placed in a tall juniper tree, likewise near the trunk 

 and about 20 feet from the ground." He also mentions nests found 

 by A. W. Anthony in giant cactus and candlewoods. 



Eggs. — Three or four eggs constitute the usual set laid by the red- 

 bellied hawk, three being commoner than four ; sets of two are uncom- 

 mon and sets of five very rare. Bendire (1892) says that Dr. B. W. 

 Evermann found as many as five eggs in a nest. The eggs are simi- 

 lar to those of the eastern race but are more often richly, heavily, and 

 handsomely marked though showing all the usual variations. The 

 measurements of 46 eggs average 53.4 by 42.1 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 56.2 by 44.8, 54 by 45.7, 48.3 by 

 40.6, and 50.2 by 39.6 millimeters. 



Young. — Mr. Dixon (1928) writes: 



After the eggs are laid and incubation begins, the two birds seem to share 

 equally in this duty. Incubation period varies from twenty-three to twenty-five 

 days, varying according to the care with which incubation was conducted in the 

 first few days, during the laying of the eggs and directly afterwards. As incu- 

 bation starts usually with the laying of the first egg, the young emerge from 

 the shell over a period of several days. Quite a difference in size is often noted 

 when they are first hatched, but this disappears as they reach the age of four or 

 five weeks. In several instances where I have observed that the heavily marked 

 eggs of a set were laid first, they were the first to hatch, and in all cases where 

 infertile eggs were noted, these were the lightly marked or plain eggs of the set. 

 Infertile eggs are not at all uncommon and it is rarely that all of a set of four 

 eggs are fertile. The young birds do not develop very fast the first week, but 

 thereafter they increase rapidly in weight up to five weeks from hatching. Then 

 the feathers begin to make their appearance and from this time on the feathers 

 develop rapidly. 



Food. — The food habits of the red-bellied hawk proclaim it a very 

 useful bird, living largely on injurious rodents, amphibians, reptiles, 

 and insects. It very seldom attacks poultry or other birds. Mr. Sharp 

 (1906) gives us some good evidence of this: 



One of my friends in San Pasqual Valley, where these hawks are common, told 

 me the red-bellied and red-tailed hawks had nested on his ranch as long as he 

 could remember (he is a very old resident) and it was very seldom they would 

 touch a chicken tho the latter were running free all the time. * * * 



All the time I was at the nest some 200 chickens of all ages and sizes were 

 working around the barn yard, in the corral and out on the stubble beyond, many 

 of them fully 20O yards from shelter but they never even gave a warning cry 

 when the old hawk flew from the nest across the yard. 



Mrs. Irene G. Wheelock (1904) says: 



In most parts of California where they breed, the records show them to have 

 eschewed everything with feathers, and to have dined upon small snakes, lizards, 

 frogs, insects, and crawfish. Fur and feathers are caught only as a last resort, 

 when there are hungry young in the nest. 



