THE WESTERN RED-TAIL. 



507 



his nest. This is a mere platform of sticks laid on a convenient and com- 

 manding ledge. The Red-tails exhibit some sagacity in placing it beyond the 

 reach of coyotes and raccoons; and the choice of such romantic situations 

 raises the bird se\-eral degrees in the estimation of one who has known it 

 lieretofore only as a tree-dweller. The birds, as likely as not, betray their 

 anxiety by sending down from some far 

 height a strong, petulant kcc daaax 

 If the nest is approached, 

 becomes frenzy, and the 

 either swoop toward the 

 intruder repeatedly, or 

 flap restlessly to and fro. 

 uttering their agonized 

 cries. At other times the 

 Hawks discuss the situa- 

 tion in sharp notes of 

 a shriller tone, kccak' , 

 kccak' . keeak'. 



The eggs, usually three 

 in number, of a dull blue- 

 ish white, unmarked, or 

 else blotched and clouded 

 with rufous, are laid 

 from the first to the third 

 week in April, according 

 to latitude. Incubation lasts about four week 



Tahcit in Walla Walla County. 



Flioto by the Author. 



XESTIXG SITE OF THE \\ESTERX RED-T.ML. 



THE NEST MAY BE F-MNTLY DISCERNED AS A LIGHTER SPOT IN' THE 

 HORIZONTAL LEDGE NEAR THE TOP OF THE CLIFF. 



nest five or six weeks longer. 



cs, and the young remain in the 

 The young birds are fed exclusively on flesh, 

 and it is a point of honor with the parents to keep an abundant supplv of this 

 on hand. What the cliicks cannot eat at once is left conveniently near, on 

 one side of the nest; and it is an easy matter, thru frequent visits, tci check 

 up on the Buteonine bill of fare. 



As we stopped at a rancher's near Brook Lake, to inquire about the wel- 

 fare of the birds, the young man of the place remarked casual!}-, that he had 

 been over on the cliffs a day or so before and had "shot a couple of them there 

 hawks." [These people have a poultry xard worth at the outside $100, to 

 which they are exceedingly devoted. They als(T have a field of wheat which 

 should yield twelve hundred bushels, if the "squirrels" wiiuld let it alone — 

 but that is of no consequence.] In coasting the basaltic rampart, we found 

 one of them, a Prairie Falcon, where it lay at the foot of the cliff. We did 

 not find its nest, altho another pair held the ledge a little further on. The 

 other victim was a Western Red-tail, and her carcass lay just below the evrie, 

 which her mate was bravelv but warilv defending. A ver\- substantial bushel 



