386 Bailey, Notes on Birds of Western Mexico. [oct 



any decayed animal matter cast up by the waves. They were found 

 breeding on Cleofa Island but none were breeding on White Rock, they 

 preferring the shelter of the trees and shrubbery found on the former 

 island. None were seen on Isabella Island. 



39. Catharista urubu. Black Vulture. — Very common and very 

 tame on the mainland, where they acted as scavengers and were unmolested/" 

 The lower branches of almost every cocoanut palm in San Bias was their 

 roosting place by day and night, and around the slaughter house were so 

 tame that they merely hopped to one side to allow one to pass. The top 

 of the old stone walls of the former Custom House, located on a high bluff, 

 was, I was told, their favorite nesting place, but up to the time of my leav- 

 ing they had shown no signs of nesting. 



40. Urubitinga anthracina. Mexican Black Hawk. — A large 

 tree in a cleared field about a mile and a half back of town, contained 

 a nest and two eggs of this species. Both eggs were pipped at the time 

 of securing them — May 14 — but I was never able to get within gun 

 reach of either of the old birds. 



4 1 . Asturina plagiata. Mexican Goshawk. — While walking through 

 a cleared field back of San Bias, April 28, a male of this species was 

 flushed from a large tree and secured. Thinking they might be breeding 

 in a cliff not far off, I turned my steps thither and was rewarded by seeing 

 the nest some 150 to 200 feet up the side of the cliff and in a tree growing 

 out of the side of it. The female was on the nest at the time, and, though 

 I wounded the bird after scaring her from the nest, I was unable to secure 

 her. As the sun was now well up and it was too late in the day to try to 

 make the hard climb, I left and returned early the next morning. A path 

 was followed up the back of the hill to the top, but on coming to a point 

 above the nest I found, to my disgust, that it contained only one egg, and 

 that the nest and tree were placed in such a position that it was really risk- 

 ing one's neck to get it. While I think I should have run the risk had it 

 contained a full set, one egg was not sufficient inducement, so I returned 

 without the egg and with one bird. 



42. Falco columbarius. Pigeon Hawk. — A single bird was seen 

 a number of times while on White Rock, generally chasing a Red-billed 

 Tropic Bird, but never did I see him capture a bird of this species. While 

 I had my gun I was unable to secure a shot, but later on one of these birds 

 would swoop down on the caracaras and gulls that were feeding on the 

 bodies of specimens I had thrown to them, and become monarch of all 

 he surveyed. It was really amusing to see this little bird take and hold 

 the fort against all comers. Starting from a perch on a jagged rock about 

 25 feet above my head, it would swoop down over the birds engaged in 

 picking the carcasses to pieces, and, turning on its upward flight, descend 

 and strike at them before they could take wing and get away. Only once 

 did any bird oppose him or show fight and he — a Turkey Vulture — was 

 soon put to route, while the caracaras were more afraid of him than the 



