200 M'GREGOR. 



At favorable points in the Philippine Islands the tic-wee buzzard 

 may be observed passing in great numbers during its autumn migration. 

 In the Island of Calayan I noted this species first on September 18, 

 1903. On October 14 large flocks were seen and, on the 17th and 18th 

 of the same month, great numbers of birds passed overhead, in a south- 

 erly direction, in long, straggling bands. 



While I was on Batan Island in 1907, Mr. William Edmonds in- 

 formed me that numbers of hawks visited Batan each year between Oc- 

 tober 10 and 20. Later, Mr. Edmonds sent me a specimen of Butastur 

 inclicus. In December 1908, through the courtesy of Lieutenant-Com- 

 mander McCormick, of the Albatross, three living specimens of B. in- 

 dicus were brought to the Bureau of Science. Two of these had beea 

 forwarded by Mr. Otto Sheerer and one had been caught aboard the 

 Albatross in the vicinitj' of Camiguin Island.* The following letter to 

 Mr. Dean C. Worcester from Mr. Sheerer contains interesting notes on 

 the habits of the tic-wee buzzard and on the methods of its capture by 

 the natives. 



By U. S. ship Albatross I beg to send you a pair of those falcons which visit 

 our islands every year in the month of October. At that time the natives of 

 Ivana (Batan) erect on the loftiest ridges behind the pueblo rude watch towers 

 consisting of nothing more than four poles some 15 to 20 feet long stuck in the 

 ground upright, or, better, in a slanting position, overhanging the steep side of 

 the mountain and forming a square of some 4 feet each side, joined in the middle 

 by crosspieees and covered in on top with a mass of branches and leaves. Some 

 3 feet tmderneath this thin thatch there is a sort 6f flooring on which the hunter 

 mounts. The birds arrive regularly at dusk, say 6 p. m. They arrive pretty 

 much tired out and gladly avail themselves of these tree-resembling scaffolds or 

 towers to rest their wings over night. Scarcely settled down to rest, the man 

 underneath reaches out and pulls the struggling bird in by the feet. Thus, a 

 lucky hunter may secure two or three at a sitting. I have tried the thing 

 myself, but the night happened to be cloudy and stormy, and as by 7 o'clock 

 no birds had arrived, as it sometimes happens in such weather, my guide called 

 the game ofl'. I secured, however, these two which had been caught the previous 

 night. They came from the northwest and leave the nest day for the southwest. 

 They are fed best on chicken entrails, or fish and they seem to prefer their food 

 presented to them stuck on the sharp' point of a split bamboo stick. 



One of the birds- sent by Mr. Sheerer was photographed in Manila 

 and is shown on Plate I. 



'Man. Philippine Birds (1009), 230. 



