254 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Otho C. Poling writes me from Fort Huachuca, Arizona, regarding 

 this Hawk, as follows: "I first met with this species on March 3, 1890, when a 

 male was shot in a deep wooded canon in this vicinity, at an elevation of about 

 7,000 feet. It had a squirrel in its talons about two-thirds eaten. During the 

 month of June, 1890, I was camped in a canon of the Huachuca Mountains, 

 among some thick spruce and sycamore woods, and had not been long in camp 

 when I heard a faint squeaking noise overhead, and on investigating, found a 

 nest of young Raptores in the top of a high sycamore, directly in front of my 

 tent. To my great pleasure I found, on waiting for the parent to arrive, that it 

 was the Mexican Goshawk. She made half a dozen or more trips daily to the 

 nest, and whenever she arrived her presence was at once hailed by the hungry 

 nestlings. I watched her closely; she would make daily trips to the mesquite 

 plains for cotton tails (Lepus arizonce), some 6 or 8 miles out in the valley. 

 After the first week a neighbor came to my camp and during my absence shot 

 the female, and presented it to me on my return. 



"Up to this time I had not seen the male, or at least had seen only one 

 individual at a time, but noticed on the following day that another bird, 

 evidently the male, appeared and carried on the feeding of the family as 

 regularly as if nothing had happened. The young were now growing rap- 

 idly, and their cries were much louder while being fed. One day, on glancing 

 up at the nest, I saw one of them perched upon a limb beside it. The parent 

 bird was near by with some game, and seemed to be urging the young one to 

 fly to it, if it would have its meal. Although it demanded its regular allow- 

 ance loudly, I observed it was left out of reach by the old bird until its first 

 lesson of flying was learned. The young were three in number, and all were 

 out of the nest the following day, but returned to it at night. They remained 

 about for several days and finally disappeared." 



Incubation lasts from three to four weeks. The eggs are usually two in 

 number, seldom more ; about one set in four contains three eggs. Their 

 ground color is a pale bluish white; and all the eggs I have taken, with a 

 single exception, are unspotted, but always more or less stained with yellowish, 

 which is difficult to remove. These stains are probably caused by the green 

 leaves on which the eggs are usually laid. The shell is fairly smooth, close 

 grained, slightly pitted, and without luster. In two sets of eggs of this species* 

 taken by Mr. F. Stephens, near Fort Bayard, New Mexico, both found on April 

 23, 1876, and which are now in the collection of the American Museum of 

 Natural History, in New York City, one egg in each is marked with a few 

 bufiy brown spots about its larger end. These, although few, are readily 

 noticeable, while the markings on the specimen taken by myself are scarcely 

 perceptible to the naked eye. Only a single brood is raised in a season. The 

 eggs vary considerably in shape, the majority are a perfect oval, a few are 

 elongate ovate, and one may be called ovate pyriform. 



The average measurement of the eggs of the Mexican Goshawk in the 

 U. S. National Museum collection is 51 by 41 millimetres, the largest egg 

 measuring 54 by 40, the smallest 48 by 41 millimetres. 



