BENNETT'S WHITE-TAILED HAWK 217 



Brownsville, Tex. The latter says of its haunts: "This fine Hawk 

 is a rather common resident on the extensive prairies near the coast, 

 especially about the sand ridges that are covered with yucca and 

 cactus." 



D. B. Burrows (1917) says of its haunts: "The Wliite-tailed 

 Hawk is known in southern Texas as the prairie hawk and the 

 White-breasted Hawk. It is plentifully distributed over the low- 

 lands wherever it is open or sparsely covered with bushes and stunted 

 treas, but does not frequent the rough, hilly portions nor the timbered 

 river bottoms." 



Nesting.— "Dt. Merrill's (1879) two nests, found May 2, 1878, were 

 placed in the tops of yuccas on the prairie; they "were not more 

 than eight feet from the ground, and were good sized platforms of 

 twigs, with scarcely any lining"; each contained a single egg. Mr. 

 Sennett (1878) also found two nests on May 16, 1878; one he de- 

 scribes as "an immense nest on the top of a large Spanish bayonet, 

 and some twelve feet from the ground." The other was similarly 

 situated but only 8 feet up. "The locality was a sandy ridge, di- 

 viding a lake from the salt marshes." 



Capt. B. F. Goss found this hawk nesting near Corpus Christi, 

 Tex., and wrote to Major Bendire (1892) as follows: 



We found the favorite breeding places of the White-tailed Hawks to be a 

 strip of opeu bushy land lying between the thick line of timber and chaparral 

 along the coast and the open prairie. Any bush rising a little above the sur- 

 rounding level seemed a suitable nesting site, and no attempt was made to 

 conceal the nest. In most cases it was very prominent, and could be seen for 

 a long distance. I examined fifteen ; they were all placed in low bushes, 

 generally not higher than 6 feet. In a few cases I had to stand upon the 

 wagon to reach them. They were composed of sticks, dry weeds, and grasses. 

 A coarse dry grass entered largely into the composition of most of them. They 

 were poorly constructed, but moderately hollowed, and usually lined with a 

 few green twigs and leaves. Taken as a whole, the nests looked ragged in out- 

 line and slovenly finished. About one nest in four contained three eggs, the 

 rest but two. 



Herbert W. Brandt has sent me his notes on two nests found by 

 him in Nueces County in 1919. The first, found on March 19, ^vas — 



located in a white thorny Armagosa bush standing as a lonely clump in a 

 great flat prairie, with an unobstructed view of the horizon on all sides. 

 The nest was exposed to view and plainly noted three-eigliths of a mile away 

 from the machine on the road. It was typical redtail type, being a sharp 

 triangular compact V in outline. The male bird was circling over the road 50O 

 feet or so up. We were watching him show the white on the top of his tail when 

 the nest was seen. On our approach, the female left at a quarter of a mile — 

 a very large bird — and sailed silently away joining its mate. They remained 

 up nearly out of sight until we left the nest, whereon they circled 100 feet above 

 the nest and, on noting the eggs gone, departed. During the entire time at 

 the nest perhaps an hour they did not utter a sound. 

 83561—37 15 



