230 THE BIRDS OF MAINE 



Subgenus TACHYTRIORCHIS Kaup. 



342. Biiteo swainsoni Bonap. Swainson's Hawk. 



Plumage of adult male in lighter phase : forehead, chin and throat white ; 

 above uniform grayish brown ; chest and upper breast rufous, only occasion- 

 ally slightly marked with whitish ; rest of lower parts whitish, sometimes 

 unmarked but usually barred or spotted with brownish ; tail with indistinct 

 darkish bars. Plumage of adult female : differs from that of male in the 

 chest patch being grayish brown, bird larger in size. Plumage of adults in 

 dark phase : whole plumage sooty brown, often appearing nearly black when 

 the bird is in the air ; the under wing coverts and the tail above and below 

 sometimes spotted or slightly barred with white. Immature plumage : above 

 fuscous brown, margined with rufous and buffy ; below ochraceous buff, 

 more or less spotted and streaked with blackish. Only three outer prim- 

 aries notched in all plumages. Wing of male 14.50 to 15.80; wing of female 

 15.00 to 17.00 ; tarsus of male 2.60 ; tarsus of female 2.70. 



Geog. Dist. — Western North America from Wisconsin, Illinois and Texas 

 to the Pacific, north to Arctic regions and south to the Argentine Republic ; 

 straggles east to Massachusetts and Maine. 



County Records. — Hancock ; one taken at Gouldsboro, September 15, 1886, 

 in melanistic plumage, (Brewster, Auk 5, p. 424). Penobscot ; one at Glen- 

 burn, May 19, 1886, (Brewster, Auk 5, p. 424) (also melanistic) ; have seen 

 at least two taken here, both melanistic, (Hardy). Washington; taken at 

 Calais, October 8, 1892, (Brewster, Auk 10, p. 82). 



Occasionally a stray individual straggles eastward into Maine 

 and for some reason such specimens all seem to be in the dark 

 phase of plumage. In southern California I became well 

 acquainted with the species. They were very fond of perching 

 on the ground usually near the edge of a canyon, or sometimes 

 in trees in the river bottoms and sitting thus for long periods, 

 seemingly lost in meditation. They also spend much time in 

 the air sailing in circles and keeping up a constant calling. 



Their chief food seemed to be the ground squirrel and also 

 grasshoppers and crickets, and to a lesser extent gophers, moles, 

 lizards, horned toads and snakes, neither do they disdain carrion 

 when other food is not readily obtainable. 



A majority of the nests I examined were in cottonwoods at 

 heights varying from twenty-five to fifty feet, and the nests 

 seemed to be old nests of the California Crow lined with many 

 green cottonwood leaves. The deserted nests of other Hawks 



