BIRDS OF PORTO RICO. 33 



RED-TAILED HAWK. Buteo borealis (Gmelin). 



GUARAGCJOU, GOARAGUOU DH SIERRA, LBCHUZA. 



Wherever there are steep hilltops still covered with second-growth forest to 

 furnish safe retreats and nesting places, red-tailed hawks are a tolerably com-' 

 mon resident species. These birds had the same call notes and habits as the 

 northern forms, but were seldom seen except at a distance. Much persecution 

 has made them wary, but so long as they have safe retreats they will continue 

 to exist. 



On January 18 one was seen carrying nesting material in the mountains above 

 Cayey and a nest seen on Vieques Island the middle of March was said the 

 week before to have contained two young two-thirds grown. Young birds were 

 noted in July and August and an immature specimen was taken near Manati 

 July 11. The birds were most active before 9 o'clock in the morning and after 

 3 in the afternoon, spending the heat of the day perched on dead trees. 



Throughout the country these hawks are universally credited with eating 

 chickens, though no specific instances were noted by the writer. Near Yabucoa 

 one man claimed to have lost eight in a week. Before man's advent in this 

 region the food of this bird must have consisted of lizards, snakes, and birds, 

 as there were apparently no mammals except bats on the island. The present 

 custom of allowing chickens to run in the fields and coffee plantations at con- 

 siderable distances from houses leaves them open to attack, and there is not 

 much doubt that a few at least are taken. Bowdish (1902-3, p. 361) notes the 

 remains of rats in the only two stomachs examined by him. Land holders all 

 conceded that the hawks ate many rats, and some that they ate crabs and 

 lizards also. The country people secure the young hawks for food whenever 

 possible. 



From the few specimens at hand it is not possible to determine whether this 

 species is allied to the Jamaican bird, or whether it is sufficiently distinct to 

 merit a new name. 



Food. — Two stomachs only of this species were examined and one was en- 

 tirely empty. The other contained the hind quarters of a good-sized rat 

 (Epimys sp.), evidence in favor of the bird. Where individuals form the 

 habit of eating chickens they should unquestionably be killed, but otherwise 

 should not be molested. 



PORTO RICAN SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. Accipter striatus venator Wetmore. 1 

 Falcon. 



On May 30 a small hawk, which proved to be a new form, was taken at an 

 elevation of about 1,500 feet back of Maricao. It came sailing overhead with 

 something, presumably a bird, in its talons, and was mistaken at first for a 

 sparrow hawk. Another individual was noted the same day, and on June 4 

 still another was seen in a dead tree eating a small bird. When shot this bird 

 fell down a steep slope and was lost. Apparently these hawks are not only 

 rare but are local, as the genus has not been recorded on the island up to this 

 time, and individuals were found in this one locality only. Here they were 

 frequenting steep slopes densely covered with coffee, while certain low mountains 

 farther inland, covered with an almost impenetrable second growth, also may 

 have harbored them. 



Food. — From the foregoing it would seem that the food was mainly small 

 birds, so that the species must be considered as injurious, though in the case 

 of a bird numerically so weak this can hardly be considered of importance. 

 The single stomach examined contained fragments of a Latimer's vireo (Vireo 



iProe. Biol. Soc. Washington, XXVII, 1914, pp. 119-122. 

 9767°— Bull. 326—16 3 



