BIRDS OF PREY 



151 



Nest ; Made of sticks, sagebrush, and leaves ; lined with green leaves 

 and plant fibre ; from 20 to 50 feet high in trees, sometimes in bushes, 

 sometimes on the ground, sometimes on ledges of rocky cliffs. 



Eggs: 1 to 4 ; pale gi-eenish buffy, lightly spotted with shades of brown. 

 Size 2.21 X 1.70. 



THROUGHOtTT the interior valleys of California, Swain- 

 son's HawL is a common spring and summer visitant, 



.IS not yet so well 



Pocket gophers, 



and grass- 



this dis- 



and one whose full value 

 known as it should be. 

 ground squirrels, insects, 

 hoppers are its sole diet in 

 trict, and no one can com- 

 pute the benefit that accrues 

 to the farmer from the breed 

 ing of these hawks on or near 

 their land. Par- „. 

 ticularly is this '"*' 

 true of a sandy 

 barren soil 

 where gopher 

 burrows are 

 numerous. Dozens of the 

 hawks fly down to the go- 

 pher colony, just at dusk, 

 and take up their stand at 

 the entrances of the bur- 

 rows, where they wait patiently and silently until the prey 

 appears. It never escapes them. If there are young hawks 

 in the nest, the victim will be carried to them ; if not, it 

 will usually be eaten at the perch nearest to the hunting 

 ground. In either case, back comes the hawk for a 



'•.jg;>s^».(5fc_ 



342. SwAiNSON Hawk. 

 ' Wait silently untU the prey appears." 



