ZONE-TAILED HAWK 215 



munk by tbis individual speaks volumes for tbe speed tbat can be attained 

 ^^'ben necessary. If tbere is any small mammal that is barder to see in tbe 

 brush or tbat can get out of sight with greater speed than the Gila chipmunk 

 it should be safe from any danger. Merely to catch sight of one of these 

 animals, though they be heard chipping in the bushes all around, is no small 

 feat ; while for a hawk to lay talons on one, in his chosen haunt of underbrush, 

 logs, and rocks, bespeaks a swoop of lightning speed. 



Behavior. — After recording in my field notes the resemblance ot 

 the zone-tailed hawk to the turkey vulture in its flight, I was inter- 

 ested to read that several other observers had noted the similarity. 

 Its flight is apparently lazy and sluggish ; it usually holds its wings 

 at an angle above its body when soaring, often carries its tail par- 

 tially closed, and tilts its body from side to side after the well-known 

 manner of the vulture; this is not a universal rule, however, for it 

 often sails on flat wings with spread tail. The dark body and the 

 lighter pattern of the primaries and secondaries, as seen from below, 

 add to the resemblance. The white zones in the tail do not show at 

 all angles and are conspicuous only from below. 



These hawks are evidently not shy about their nesting sites. I 

 could easily have shot both of the pair we found nesting, but I was 

 satisfied with one. Dr. Mearns (1886) shot both parents at one of 

 his nests and one of the pair at the other. In both cases one of the 

 birds came screaming at him before he began to look for the nest. 

 One, which he saw standing on her nest, "gave a loud whistle and 

 came skimming towards him." The mate of the other flew from the 

 nest, circled over the canyon a few times and disappeared. Again he 

 writes: "One day, when examining the work of beavers beside the 

 Verde, a Zone-tailed Hawk emerged from the dark shade of a neigh- 

 boring belt of cottonwoods, moving straight towards me on motion- 

 less wings and passing within a few feet, scanning the water beneath 

 with intent interest and paying no attention to me, but moving its 

 head with a restless side movement." 



Voice. — I recorded its cry as an incessant and somewhat peevish 

 whistle, halfway between the notes of the red-tailed and the broad- 

 winged hawks. Dr. Mearns (1886) called it a "loud" or "shrill 

 whistle." 



Field marks. — Its resemblance to the turkey vulture is referred to 

 above. It has often been confused with the Mexican black hawk, 

 which it closely resembles. The latter has a broad white band on 

 both the upper and the under surfaces of the tail. The zonetail has 

 no white on the upper surface of the tail but has three pure white 

 bands on the under surface ; the outermost is the broadest and most 

 conspicuous and the innermost hardly shows at all in flight (see 

 account under Mexican black hawk) . 



Fall. — The zone-tailed hawk disappears from the northern por- 

 tions of its range in winter. W. E. D. Scott (1886) says: "On two 



