132 BULLETIN 17 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



food: Rabbits, skunks, prairie dogs, opossums, rats, mice, squirrels, 

 snakes, frogs, lizards, young alligators, turtles, crabs, crayfish, fishes, 

 young birds, beetles, grasshoppers, maggots, and worms. 



Bendire (1892) quotes William Lloyd as saying: "Although carrion 

 feeding birds, they are very fond of live fish and frogs. I have seen 

 them fishing repeatedly in Sonora, Mexico. In Concho County I 

 have seen them hunting prairie dogs, in couples, and once showing a 

 high degree of intelligence. One was hidden behind a tussock of 

 grass while the other danced before a young lamb, trying to lead it 

 from the place where its mother was grazing to where its companion 

 was hidden. The ruse was nearly successful, as the lamb began to 

 follow, but the dam, anxiously watching, finally called it back." 



Bendire himself "saw one of these birds engaged in quite an en- 

 counter with a good sized snake which had partly coiled itself about 

 its neck, both bird and snake struggling for a few minutes at quite a 

 lively rate. The Caracara had the best of the fight, however, and 

 before I could get to the place, the bird was off with its quarry, the 

 snake still squirming and twisting about in its talons." 



Dr. J. C. Merrill (1878) writes: "I have seen a Caracara chase a 

 jackass-rabbit for some distance through open mesquite chaparral, 

 and while they were in sight the bird kept within a few feet of the 

 animal and constantly gained on it, in spite of its sharp turns and 

 bounds. If one bird has caught a snake or field-mouse, its com- 

 panions that may happen to see it at once pursue, and a chase follows 

 very different from what is seen among true Vultures." 



Mr. Grimes sent me a photograph showing the shells of 43 mud 

 turtles and a box tortoise, the head of a large snapping turtle, a 

 small garfish, and the remains of a bass that he picked up in a few 

 minutes around a caracara's nest that held large young. Twelve 

 heads of small turtles were found in the nest. I wrote to him that I 

 was curious to know how the birds carried the turtles and how they 

 extracted the meat. He responded by spending two hours in a blind 

 near a nest and watching how it was done; he writes to me that he 

 "saw the old birds make five trips to the nest with food for the young. 

 Each of these times, and on three other occasions that I have seen 

 food brought to the nest, the object was brought in the bill. Only 

 one turtle was brought to the nest while I was watching. It was a 

 5-inch mud turtle, and was held by the edge of the shell, as the bird 

 sailed in with it. The old caracara did not merely leave the turtle 

 at the nest for the young (which were as large as the parent bird) to 

 help themselves; but stayed there 35 minutes, removing the animal 

 from its shell bit by bit and feeding the pieces to her offspring. At 

 a distance of 100 feet I could plainly hear the bird's mandibles clack 

 against the turtle's shell, as she held it down with her feet and strained 



