290 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



yet no chickens have ever been molested." He quotes Mr. Sullivan 

 as follows : 



I have watelied the hawks often through glasses in our alfaU'a field after 

 the first crop has been taken off. The pocket gophers get pretty busy tunnel- 

 ling, and pushing all the loose, damp earth up in piles on the surface. The 

 hawks fly slowly over the field until they discover a fresh pile of damp earth. 

 Here they will alight softly, and wait for the gopher to push close to the sur- 

 face. They will then spread th'eir wings, and, rising a few feet in the air, 

 come down stitf-legge<l into the loose earth when the gopher is transfixed and 

 brought out. I have seen them eat the gopher where caught and at other times 

 carry it away. 



During the nesting season some few birds are killed as food for 

 the young; "until the nestlings were about two weeks old their food 

 consisted partly of meadow-larks." In frequent visits to one nest 

 there were seen in all nine prairie dogs, one cottontail rabbit, two 

 bull snakes, and some remains of sharp-tailed grouse and meadow- 

 larks. The contents of another nest were similar, including also the 

 remains of a young magpie; the grouse remains were also probably 

 from young birds. He gives an interesting account of an attempt 

 by one of these hawks to carry off a cat; the haw^k had risen to a 

 height of about 25 feet with the surprised cat in its talons, when the 

 cat opened hostilities with its claws and was promptly dropped, not 

 much the worse for its experience. 



Illustrating the value of this hawk to the wheat farmer, P. A. 

 Taverner (1926) writes: 



A conseivative estimate of the requirements of a family of these large Hav/ks 

 is surprising in its total. Two adults, from spring arrival to the birth of young, 

 three months, consume not less than a gopher a day, 90 in all. After the young 

 are out, four in the brood, and for two months at least, the family requirement 

 can not average less than three gophers a day, or 180. Thereafter for one 

 month, the six practically adult, though four are still growing, probably will 

 require one gopher each day, or ISO more. A single gopher, under favourable 

 circumstances, destroys at least one bushel of wheat. Supposing that one-tenth 

 of this can be charged against the average gopher, we still have thirty-five 

 bushels of w'heat as the value of this one family of large Hawks for a single 

 season. This can be translated into dollars and cents by multiplying the 

 current price of wheat, and makes a sum that is well worth considering. 



Nearly all observers agree that the food of the ferruginous rough- 

 leg consists almost exclusively of mammals, ranging in size from 

 jack rabbits to meadow mice; as many as six or seven of the latter 

 have been found in a single stomach. Snakes, lizards, and skunks 

 are taken occasionally, as well as grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles. 



Behavior, — The ferruginous roughleg appears sluggish at tunes, 

 as it sits quieth' on some low tree or fence post or even on the 

 ground v/atching for its prey. At such times it is not particularly 

 wary and can be approached within gun range if it thinks it is not 

 observed. A rider on horseback or in an automobile has a better 



