FAMILY ACCIPITRIDAE 201 



This handsome hawk spends much of its time in the higher levels 

 of forest trees, where usually it flies from behind cover, and so it 

 is not easily seen. Its apparent greater abundance on the Pacific 

 slope may be due to the more open cover in that area which permits 

 clearer view. The species is less common than the large-billed hawk 

 and also is much more retiring. The larger feet with longer claws, 

 as well as the heavier body indicate also that it is a more active 

 predator. Mice, rats, lizards, and frogs are recorded as its food. 

 It also preys on small birds to some extent. Sometimes these hawks 

 have decoyed to the distress calls that I use in hunting. 



Near Mandinga, San Bias, at the end of January a pair were 

 building a nest in the upper branches of a dark-leafed tree a hundred 

 meters from our house, and were active in this until our departure 

 on February 15. The usual call was a loud kree-ee-ah, with addi- 

 tional whistled notes, in general like those of the crab-hawk, but 

 definitely higher in tone. Sometimes when I approached quietly one 

 of the birds that I believed to be the male would alight on an open 

 limb in a gray-barked jobo tree, which his color matched perfectly. 

 Here he rested with body inclined forward, and vibrated the tail 

 steadily from side to side, a movement that emphasized the black-and- 

 white markings of the tip. The nest, which we were unable to reach 

 because of the size of the tree, appeared to resemble that of other 

 tree-building hawks, in that it was constructed of small sticks. On 

 February 7 I saw one of the birds fly to it bearing a freshly broken, 

 leafy branch. 



Wolfe (Ool. Rec, 1938, p. 50) describes a set of 2 collected by 

 Austin Paul Smith, May 2, 1923 in the Province of Guanacaste, Costa 

 Rica as lightly marked with light brown. They measure 42.5 X 36.3, 

 and 43.6x37.2 mm. The ground color in eggs of this species varies 

 from dull white to bluish white, usually plain, rarely spotted with 

 brown. 



This subspecies was first described by Harry Kirke Swann in 1922 

 as Asturina nitida costaricensis. With its transfer to the genus Buteo 

 this name is preoccupied by Buteo jamaicensis costaricensis Ridgway, 

 dated 1874. It was renamed blakei, therefore, by Hellmayr and 

 Conover, as indicated in the heading above. The type locality cited 

 by Swann as "Pozo del Rio Grande, Bornea" ( = Boruca) has been 

 followed by other authors but needs correction. The type specimen, 

 a male in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, was collected in 

 1906 by C. F. Underwood at Pozo del Rio Grande,a point at about 

 150 meters elevation, according to Bangs (Auk, 1907, pp. 287, 290). 



