GUADALUPE CARACARA 137 



last record we have of birds being seen by a competent ornithologist. 

 W. W. Brown and H. W. Marsden spent two months on Guadalupe 

 Island in 1906; "the island was ransacked from end to end, but no 

 trace of the caracara could be found. Goats were killed and left at 

 various points on the island, especially upon the high, open tableland, 

 where the caracaras, had there been any, must have detected them, 

 but nothing came to any of the many carcasses that were thus exposed" 

 (Thayer and Bangs, 1908). 



The "dark colored birds" seen by Capt. Charles E. Davis in 1913, 

 reported by Harry S. Swarth (1913), must have been something else, 

 perhaps immature gulls. Mr. Abbott (1933) has published an inter- 

 esting paper on the closing history of this bird and the histories of 

 existing specimens. He found a total of 37 recorded specimens, of 

 which he was able to locate 34; of these, 14 skins and one skeleton are 

 in the United States National Museum. 



Nesting.- — Very little is known about the nesting habits of the 

 Guadalupe caracara, and hardly anything that is really authentic. 

 H. Kirke Swann (1925) writes: "Curiously enough, although the 

 nests must have been common thirty or forty years ago, no eggs 

 appear to have been preserved except the single one in my own collec- 

 tion. This oological rarity was taken on the island by W. More on 

 April 17th, 1897. The nest was a huge affair of sticks on the top of a 

 pile of rubbish and cacti. Only two pairs of birds were seen and the 

 9 of this pair was shot." 



The Mexicans told Dr. Bryant (1887) "that a cliff was always 

 chosen for a nesting place, thus making then* nests difficult to find 

 and still more difficult of access." 



Eggs. — The egg in the Swann collection is probably authentic. 

 He says of it: "The egg resembles a pale egg of P. cheriway auduboni, 

 but is rather smaller; size 55 by 43 mm. It has a whitish ground 

 obscured by heavy spotting and blotching of dark reddish brown. 

 This egg is figured on the plate accompanying pt. I." 



Charles E. Doe has an egg in his collection, which appears to be 

 genuine; it was taken on Guadalupe Island on "3-4-80" and measures 

 67 by 50 millimeters. Mr. Doe describes it as a light-colored egg, 

 much like figure 4 on plate 11 in Bendire's (1892) work. No nest 

 description came with it. 



Plumages. — Robert Ridgway (1876) has described the plumages of 

 the Guadalupe caracara very satisfactorily. Of the downy young, he 

 says: "Four young birds taken from the same nest differ remarkably 

 in size and general development, the smallest being apparently just 

 hatched, while the largest is nearly one-third grown, with well- 

 developed feathers in the wings and tail. The other specimens were 

 intermediate." One of these, which I have examined, looks much like 



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