BIRD NOTES AFIELD 



at rotten limbs in search of insects and leading a bustling life 

 generally. 



The birds of prey are the only other species which begin 

 nest-building during the month of March. By far the com- 

 monest of these about Berkeley is the western red-tailed hawk, 

 which may be seen at almost any time sailing in easy circles 

 above our hill crests. He is a most useful bird to the farmer, 

 feeding chiefly upon ground-squirrels and the larger insects, 

 and well merits protection instead of the persecution to which 

 he is subjected. His call-note during the breeding season 

 is a loud, emphatic pee eee, uttered upon the wing and fre- 

 quently accented by a great, downward swoop. The nest is 

 built chiefly of sticks placed in the rain-washed holes or scoops 

 in the faces of rocky cliffs, or in the top of a live-oak or occa- 

 sionally of a pine tree. The eggs are pale buff in color, gen- 

 erally rather faintly spotted with brown. 



The prairie-falcon, a medium-sized, swift-flying hawk, dull 

 brown above and white below, spotted and barred with brown, 

 nested, in former years, about Berkeley, but I have never ob- 

 served its nesting habits myself except in the vicinity of Mount 

 Diablo. Its note is a loud, plaintive call which may be 

 represented by the syllables ^a-lp/e-e, ^a-lPiV-e, J^a-wie'-e. 

 This was sometimes varied to ^e -I'e, ke-ie, ke-ie, with the first 

 syllable long drawn out. At other times an entirely different 

 cry was heard, uttered very rapidly, thus: a-chicJ(' -wa, chick- 

 TPa, chick'. The two or three eggs laid by this species are 

 white, heavily marked and blotched with brown. When I 

 observed them at Mount Diablo, in the month of July, the old 

 birds were carrying food to their young among the rocky clifiFs. 

 It was probably the second brood of the year. 



[112] 



