312 . LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Usually but one brood is raised in a season. Sometimes, however, fresh 

 eggs of this species are found so late in the season that it seems as if two 

 broods might possibly now and then be hatched. Mr. Frank Uobinette, of 

 Washington, District of Columbia, found a set of five fresh eggs of this species 

 as late as the first week in August, ISXJI. 



The nesting sites vary greatly, as has already been mentioned. I have 

 seen their nests less than 4 feet from the ground, and again in the dead 

 tops of pine trees fully 80 feet and more up. Oaks, sycamores, eottonwood 

 and buttonwood trees, pines and other conifers, large willows, chestnuts, and, 

 in the interior, junipers furnish them favorite sites, and where I have prin- 

 cipally observed them, they are not at all shy and usually allow themselve- 

 to be closely approached. In the West they are oftener found in the narrow 

 strips of timber bordering the streams or in the scattered juniper groves found 

 in the foothills than in the heavier forests. 



.Mr. H. W. Henshaw tells me of a peculiar incident regarding this species 

 which came under his observation in the spring of 1884, while collecting in 

 the vicinity of Colorado Springs, Colorado. He found a nest of this little 

 Falcon in a low pine stump, not more than 4 feet from the ground. Tin- 

 female was on the nest, her tail partly sticking out of the hole. As the bird 

 could not be dislodged, and he did not want to pull her out by the tail, In- 

 left her. Coming by the place again sometime later in the day, he found her 

 absent and saw on examination that the nest contained several eggs which 

 were just ready to hatch, some of the eggs being chipped, and the young 

 about to emerge from the shells. Wishing to procure a couple of young birds 

 just hatched, he did not disturb the nest any further that day, but to his sur- 

 prise on visiting it the next morning, the burrow was empty and no indications 

 were visible to prove that it had been despoiled by anv predatory animal. No 

 sign of empty or broken shells was to be seen in the vicinity, and he came 

 to the conclusion that the parents themselves had made the change, and carried 

 the eggs or young to some other suitable burrow, a number of which were 

 available in the immediate vicinity. 



While in search of food, these handsome little Falcons frequently arrest 

 their swift flight instantly, hovering suspended over the spot where their prey is 

 supposed to be found. Their food consists principally of small rodents, gra>s- 

 hoppers, and other insects, and larvae of various kinds; lizards and small snake- 

 are also eaten by them, and occasionally, when other provender is scarce, espe- 

 cially in winter, small birds have to suffer. Grasshoppers when attainable form 

 the bulk of their fare, and it is amusing to watch them catch and dispose 

 of the latter, handling them as expertly as a squirrel does a nut, and no 

 sooner has one been caught and swallowed than they are after another. They 

 seize them with their talons both while on the wing and on the ground. 

 After gorging themselves, they return to some favorite perch on a dead limb 

 of a tree standing on the edge of a prairie or meadow, or to the top or the 

 crossbars of a telegraph pole and sometimes to the wire itself. In the West, 



