112 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



ing in the hilly and bushy regions 

 of the Martinez settlement, at the 

 farm and pasture of my old friend, 

 the Hon. John Wickland, I saw in 

 the midst of a dense post oak and 

 persimmon thicket, a large prairie 

 hawk, suddenly escaping with its 

 prey, a small cotton tail rabbit. 

 Only the torn up hide and rem- 



ready been described and photo- 

 illustrated in the Texas Field and 

 one Sunday recently, I saw a very 

 beautiful hawk escaping from 

 where it had its meal, a very 

 young cottontail rabbit, among 

 some of the cactus jungles and 

 mesquite trees along Mitchell's 

 lake and near one of the small 





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Prairie Hawk and Remnants of Small Cotton Tail Rabb.it in Front of Some Cactus Jungle 



nants of bones were left, and the 

 hawk presumably had been feed- 

 ing on the carcass for a day or 

 two, as only small shreds of meat 

 were left on the bones, and all the 

 entrails were absent. 



Lately also, I had occasion to 

 witness, such prairie hawks with 

 their prey — one of which had al- 



elub houses. "With a quick shot 

 the escaping hawk was wounded 

 in one of the wing joints, but it 

 managed to fly up to a lower large 

 tree branch where, however, it 

 stayed but a few moments, when 

 it flew, or rather fluttered into 

 some high weeds below and near 

 the tree. It was not further mo- 



