AUDUBON'S CARACARA 127 



eggs average 34 by 28 millimeters ; the eggs showing the four extremes 

 measure 36.6 by 27.4, 33.3 by 29.9, 30 by 28.3, and 34 by 26 milli- 

 meters. 



Food. — C. J. Pennock says in his notes: "In Charlotte County, 

 Fla., the little sparrow hawk is the resident form and occurs abun- 

 dantly, feeding largely on insects, so far as I have observed. Thirteen 

 were seen at one time circling about and through the smoke from a 

 raging marsh fire, evidently feeding on winged insects forced to take 

 flight. The stomach of one of these birds contained a katydid and 

 a large winged grasshopper." One day, on the golf course, he saw 

 one twice swoop down at golf balls rolling on the fairway. 



POLYBORUS CHERIWAY AUDUBONI Cassin 



audubon's caracara 

 Plates 21-25 



HABITS 



Audubon's caracara is a northern race of a South American species 

 that reaches its northern limits in Arizona, Texas, and Florida. It is 

 rare in Arizona but fairly common in parts of Texas and Florida. It 

 is locally known as the "Mexican eagle", or "Mexican buzzard", both 

 appropriate names, as it somewhat resembles an eagle in its manner 

 of flight and partially resembles a vulture in its feeding habits. 



In Florida it is restricted mainly to the open prairie regions in the 

 center of the State; its center of abundance seems to be on the great 

 Kissimmee Prairie, north of Lake Okeechobee, but it may be found 

 anywhere that similar prairies exist. The Kissimmee Prairie is a 

 large, low, flat, grassy plain, drained by the Kissimmee River and a 

 few small streams; it is dotted with numerous shallow ponds and 

 sloughs, and, especially near the river, there are many small hammocks 

 of large live oaks and cabbage palmettos. Scattered all over the 

 prairie are clumps of saw palmetto, a few scrubby oaks, numerous 

 solitary cabbage palmettos, and an occasional small clump of cypress. 

 In this characteristic home of the caracara, its most conspicuous 

 neighbors are the sandhill crane, nesting in the shallow ponds and 

 sloughs, and the Florida races of the red-shouldered hawk and barred 

 owl, which nest in nearly every hammock. The caracara is not a 

 woodland bird and is seldom seen in the pines and still more rarely in 

 the cypress country. 



In Texas its haunts are similar, according to George Finlay Simmons 

 (1925), "open pasturelands and prairies, generally where dotted by 

 oak mottes or crossed by creeks and arroyos narrowly skirted with 

 trees. Mesquite forests typical of the Rio Grande Coastal Plain from 

 Austin southward. Open divides in the wooded mountainous country. 

 Prefers prairies to wooded country, never breeding in tall trees in 

 wooded bottoms. Wanders along streams into the wooded hills." 



