REPORT UPON ORNITHOLOGICAL SPECIMENS. 



139 



150. Buteo swaimoni, Bon. Swainson's Hawk. 



At Gamp Grant, Ariz., in the latter part of September, this hawk 

 was present in very large numbers, and they seemed to have centered 

 in this spot from the surrounding country. About a mile below the 

 post, out on the plain, the stream was bordered by some large cofcton- 

 woods, and these were habitually used as roosting-places by the turkey- 

 buzzards and hawks conjointly, as the whitened appearance of the 

 branches and the ground below testified, as well as the fetid odor in 

 their vicinity. Hawks and buzzards appeared to be on terms of the 

 most intimate companionship with each other, and one tree often held 

 seven or eight of either birds. The buzzards seemed if anything rather 

 the shyer of the two, and were generally the first to start, when imme- 

 diately the whole band would leave their perches, and begin circling 

 in the air, gradually ascending higher and higher till out of danger, 

 and thus continue wheeling about till the coast was clear, when all 

 would again resume their perches. After leaving these, and getting 

 fairly on the wing, which they did rather clumsily, the flight of this 

 hawk is firm and easy, and as they gradually soar higher and higher in 

 circles, their flight bears no little resemblance to that of the buzzards, 

 though it is less powerful and not so well sustained. Indeed, when 

 thus mingled with the buzzards, the general resemblance is rather strik- 

 ing. I am not aware that these hawks feed upon carrion, though that 

 they occasionally do so is not unlikely. The crops of all those shot 

 were found fairly crammed with grasshoppers ; and as these insects 

 were very abundant, the hawks, as a matter of course, were very fat. 



Bill black ; cere yellow ; legs and feet yellow. 



Iris brown ; cere greenish-yellow ; base lower mandible and edge 

 along gape greenish-yellow ; legs and feet yellow. 



