VoI i907 IV ] Cameron, Birds of Custer & Davenport Counties, Mont. 259 



59. Zenaidura macroura. Mourning Dove. — Abundant, arriving 

 about May 1 and usually leaving first week in October. Nests indifferently 

 on the ground or on trees. (Plate IX, Fig. 2.) A Mourning Dove hard 

 pressed by a hawk took refuge in Mr. Dan Bowman's buggy as he was 

 driving along. 



6(5. Cathartes aura. Turkey Vulture. — Rare. Mr. Dan Bowman 

 informs me that during the fall of 1883 Turkey Buzzards were incredibly 

 numerous in eastern Montana, and roosted in thousands on the Powder 

 River in the vicinity of his ranch. The birds constructed their nests in 

 the cottonwood trees along the river, the stench from these rookeries 

 being so great that it was almost impossible to approach. He tells me 

 that the young were fed by regurgitation. Without doubt it was the 

 prodigious slaughter of bison (Bison bison) which attracted the birds, 

 for while the southern herd (estimated at four millions) had already 

 ceased to exist, the northern herd (containing about a million and a half) 

 was wiped out in 1883. ' From this time on, the Turkey Buzzards have 

 become more and more scarce until in the present year (1906) they must 

 be regarded as accidental wanderers. Mr. D. Bowman fixes the fall of 

 1887 as the date when they ceased to nest here — a colony of about 75 

 birds then occupying the pines of the East Powder River divide — but 

 Mr. J. H. Price, who lives in this district, has observed young birds since. 



I take the following records of Turkey Buzzards from my diaries: — 



August, 1892, 4 seen gyrating above Tongue River, Montana. 



April 10, 1893, 5 on my ranch in Custer County. 



July 29, 1894, 6 near Fallon at a dead calf; two so gorged as to be unable 

 to fly. 



October, 1896, 1 shot by Mr. Walter Lindsay at carcass of horse on 

 Mizpali Creek. 



June 12, 1898, 1 remained on my ranch in Custer County for three days. 



April 18, 1906, 2. A Turkey Vulture arrived on my ranch in Dawson 

 County and was afterwards joined by a second, when the pair must have 

 nested in the adjoining bad land as they remained there during the summer. 



61. Circus hudsonius. Marsh Hawk. — The commonest hawk here 

 with exception of the Desert Sparrow Hawk. Males arrive about the end 

 of March and females somewhat later, all leaving again in the middle of 

 October. For many years a pair nested below my ranch house in Custer 

 County, and always received strict protection. This bird is the common 

 'Henhawk' of eastern Montana and is the most pertinacious of any in 

 attacks on the poultry yard. Young Marsh Hawks weighing about ten 

 ounces will endeavor to disable a chicken weighing a pound, by pecking 

 it on the head and striking on the back at the same time with the feet, 

 their strong wings enabling them to keep directly above it no matter where 

 the prey may run. Birds of the year, through inexperience, are the most 



1 See ' The Extirpation of the American Bison,' Hornarlay, 1889. 



