1!»17 BIRDS OF THE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ISLANDS 57 



and C B. Linton (9) says it is quite common tlierc. Willett (17) found Duck 

 Hawks to be common on San IMiguel the middle of June, 1910. 



AVliere there are colonies of small pelagic birds, these falcons are the com- 

 inouest. They usually nest on inaccessible cliffs, but on north island of the C'or- 

 oUfulos group, they breed on ledges in the caves of the hillsides, and arc easily 

 accessible without a rope. A. van Rossem (MS) found a set of eggs there that 

 were deposited on a bare ridge close to a path. Fresh eggs may l)e looked for 

 during the last half of March and first of April. 



J. Grinnell and F. S. Daggett (16), on the Coronados, found skins of the 

 Western Gull turned wrong side out over the head, leaving the skeletons picked 

 clean, and believe that the hawks were responsible. H. Linton and G. Willett 

 (.9) saw one take a Red Phalarope from the kelp near the shore of Santa Cruz 

 Island. First one and then another of a pair of falcons chased the little fellow 

 until lie was tired out. C. B. Linton (.9) states that Black Turnstones are a fa- 

 vorite prey. As previously stated, they do great damage among the colonies of 

 petrels, auklets and murrelets during the nesting season, while in winter, not 

 even that expert diver the Rhinoceros Auklet is immune from their successful at- 

 tacks. I have found that when the young Duck Hawks are thoroughly strong on 

 the wing, the majority forsake the islands, and probably spend the rest of the 

 season along the mainland coast. On the Coronados, June 8, 1913, .A. van Ros- 

 sem shot an immature bird which tumbled down a cliff. As we were approaching 

 it in a skiff two hours later, an adult arose from the carcass, and upon examina- 

 tion we found that the whole back and one wing had been eaten away, so the 

 species evidently has cannibalistic tendencies. 



90. Falco columbarius columbarius Linnaeus 



Pigeon Hav^'^k 



Falco columbarius (1) Linton, Condor, x, 1908, p. 127. 



Rather rare winter visitant. While D. R. Dickey was removing a fox from 

 a trap on San Clemente Island, March 30, 1915, a pair of these birds circled 

 closely around him for two or three minutes. He says that there could have been 

 no mistake in identification, and from then until we left, April 11, we several 

 times saw what were evidently the same birds. C. B. Linton (1) noted a few in 

 the canyons of Santa Cruz Island during November and December, 1907. 



91. Falco sparverius phalaena (Lesson) 



Desert Sparrow Haw^k 



Falco sparverius deserticolus (7) Mailliard, Bull. Cooper Orn. Club, i, 1899, p. 44. 



Falco sparverius (3) Linton, Condor, x, 1908, p. 83. (3) Wright and Snyder, Condor, 



XV, 1913, p. 91. 

 Falco sparverius phaloena (.'{) Linton, Condor, x, 1908, p. 127. (T) Osburn, Condor, 



XI, 1909, p. 137. (6) Burt, Condor, xiii, 1911, p. 166. 

 Sparrow Hawk (7) Willett, Condor, xii, 1910, p. 172. 



Reported from several islands, and probably resident. C. B. Linton (MS) 

 says that he has seen these birds on San Nicolas Island; he (2) recorded them as 

 occasional on San Clemente, in 1907. IT. C. Burt (6) rex)orted a pair on Ana- 



