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 several degrees in the estimation of one who has known it 
heretofore only as a tree-dweller. The birds, as likely as not, betray their 
anxiety by sending down from some far 
height a strong, petulant kee daaay 
If the nest is approached, interest 
becomes frenzy, and the Hawks 
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 im sharp notes of 
a shriller tone, keeak’, 
keeak’, keeak’. 
The eggs, usually three 
in number, of a dull blue- 
ish white, unmarked, or 
else blotched and clouded Faken in Watla Walla County. Piiato, bys €lielanthior. 
with rufous, are laid NESTING SITE OF THE WESTERN RED-TAIL.. 
from the first to the third ‘HE NEST MAY BE FAINTLY DISCERNED AS A LIGHTER SPOT IN THE 
HORIZONTAL LEDGE NEAR THE TOP OF THE CLIFF. 
week in April, according 
to latitude. Incubation lasts about four weeks, and the young remain in the 
nest five or six weeks longer. The young birds are fed exclusively on flesh, 
and it is a point of honor with the parents to keep an abundant supply of this 
on hand. What the chicks cannot eat at once is left conveniently near, on 
one side of the nest; and it is an easy matter, thru frequent visits, to 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 casually, 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 yard worth at the outside $roo, to 
which they are exceedingly devoted They also have a field of wheat which 
should yield twelve hundred bushels, if the “squirrels” would 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 eyrie, 
which her mate was bravely but warily defending. A very substantial bushel 
