FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 171 



pure white with few markings to deep cinnamon buff, more or less sprin- 

 kled or blotched with darker brown. 



Food. Mainly grasshoppers and crickets ; also other insects, snails, 

 small injurious mammals, and sometimes birds. 



The habits of the. eastern sparrow hawk are the same as those of 

 the western. 



360a. F. s. deserticola Mearns. DESERT SPARROW HAWK. 



Similar to F. sparverius but larger, with relatively longer tail and paler, 

 more rufous coloration. 



Distribution. Western United States and British Columbia ; south to 

 Guatemala. 



Food. Small mammals such as mice and gophers, with grasshoppers 

 and other insects. 



The marsh hawk and the sparrow hawk are the two most familiar 

 members of the hawk family. Instead of spending their time soaring 

 high in the sky or darting back and forth through the treetops, 

 Circus beats slowly low over our meadows for mice, while the spar- 

 row hawk builds his nest in a knot-hole of a tree by the roadside 

 and sits on a fence post when not hovering over the meadow looking 

 for grasshoppers. His handsome, trim little person is familiar to 

 passers by, while his shrill kilty-kilty -kitty, given as he hovers, is one 

 of the pleasant well-known sounds of the open country. 



In the mountains the sparrow hawks often affect the high places. 

 On Mount Shasta they have been seen at about 13,000 feet. On Las- 

 sen Peak. Mr. W. K. Fisher saw one in such hot pursuit of a Clarke 

 crow that it took refuge in a clump of hemlocks. In the Wind 

 River Mountains they have been seen hovering over large tracts of 

 slide rock as if in search of conies and chipmunks. 



GENUS POLYBORUS. 



362. Polyborus cheriway (Jacq.). AUDUBON CARACARA. 



Bill long, compressed, only slightly hooked; nostrils linear, oblique, 

 slanting down toward cutting edge of bill ; upper mandible scalloped on 

 cutting edge ; tarsus nearly twice as long as middle toe without claw, 

 almost wholly naked. 



Adults. Skin of face nearly bare ; horizontal crest and body blackish 

 brown except for white collar and white on wings and tail, the white col- 

 lar widening to a cape on back, grading from pure white through spotted 

 and barred black and white to black ; wings with white shaft streaks and 

 grayish white patch on quills ; tail white, with broad black terminal band 

 and about 13 or 14 narrow dusky bars. Young : black of adults replaced by 

 brown, mixed black and white cape of adult dingy whitish, striped with 

 dark brown. Length: 20.50-25.00, wing 14.60-16.50, tail 8.80-10.00, bill 

 1.20-1.48. 



Distribution. Resident along the southern border of the United States 

 (Florida, Texas, and Arizona) and Lower California ; extending south to 

 South America, Ecuador, and Guiana. 



