HARRIS'S HAWK. 203 



crops of those I obtained mice, lizards, birds, and often the Mexican striped 

 gopher (Spewnophttus me&icamta), proving them to be active hunters, instead of 

 the sluggish birds they appeared the year before at Brownsville. They are 

 silent and not very shy. Young from the egg are covered with down, more 

 plentifully on crown and back than elsewhere; are colored white on under 

 parts, shading to buff and ochraceous on back and head, and are very pretty 

 little chicks. Dissection of a female on April 1 1 disclosed an egg almost ready 

 to be laid. On April 22, two sets of eggs were taken, 4 or 5 miles from Lomita, 

 one 25 feet high in an ebony tree, the other 20 feet high in a mesquite. Each 

 contained three eggs hard sat upon." 1 



Capt. B. F. Goss found this species very abundant in the vicinity of Cor- 

 pus Christi, Texas, in the spring of 1883, and took quite a number of their 

 nests and eggs. He found one containing eggs as early as February 18. He 

 says: "They build a substantial nest of sticks and weeds, lined with grasses 

 and small roots, after the fashion of the Buteos, but do not finish it as nicely 

 as the latter. I examined eighteen of their nests, and there was nothing 

 remarkable about them, except that they were often placed quite low, when 

 higher sites were equally available. The average number of eggs found by 

 me to a set was three, but sets of four are not uncommon." 



Personally I met with the nest of this bird on but three occasions during 

 the spring of 1S72, while stationed near Tucson, Arizona. One of these nests, 

 containing two fresh eggs, was found on May 17. It was a bulky structure, 

 placed in a low bushy cotton wood tree, in a fork about 20 feet up, about 10 

 miles below Tucson, near the Laguna, the sink of the Santa Cruz River. It 

 was composed of sticks, and sparingly lined with pieces of the dry inner bark 

 of the cottonwood, and grasses. The bird made no hostile demonstrations, but 

 sailed slowly around above the nest out of gunshot range. The inner cavity 

 of the nest was slight. 



The two other nests, each containing but two eggs, were found in low 

 mesquite trees, about 15 feet above the ground, on June 4 and June 6, respec- 

 tively. The first nest was a very slight affair, composed of mesquite sticks, as 

 well as the dry seed pods of this trees, and a little grass. While standing 

 directly under the nest I could see the eggs through the bottom of it. The 

 third one was similarly situated, and both were found on the barren plains 

 west of the camp. 



I know but little about the habits of this species, and while in other regions 

 they seem to associate with the Turkey Vultures and the Caracaras, I never 

 saw them doing so in southern Arizona, where both were also found by me. 

 They appeared to be a lazy sluggish bird, their flight slow, and not graceful. 



Dr. James C. Merrill, U. S. Army, found a nest of this species near Browns- 

 ville, Texas, placed on the top of a Spanish bayonet some 8 or 9 feet above the 

 ground. 



1 Further Notes on the Ornithology of the Lower Rio Grande of Texas, U. S. Geological and Geograph- 

 ical Survey, Hayden, Vol. v, No. 3, 1879, pp. 419, 420. 



