214 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



young bird, was shot by Lieutenant Rockwell, U. S. Navy, in the vicinity 

 of Hot Springs Bay, on Baronof Island, near Sitka, Alaska, latitude 56° 30', 

 on June 5, 1880; this was probably raised in the neighborhood, and marks 

 the most northern point at which it has yet been found. 



The Western Red-tail, though nowhere very abundant, is pretty generally 

 distributed over western North America at large, and is, next to Swainson's 

 Hawk, the commonest of the larger Raptores found in these regions. Its 

 habits are in many respects similar to those of the common Red-tailed 

 Hawk of the Eastern States; it is fond of the tall timber bordering the 

 banks of streams, and is as often found far in the mountain passes and deep 

 canons as in the more open country in the foothills and the adjacent plains, 

 but seems to shun the dense and extensive forests, and is rarely seen except- 

 ing on the borders of these. In some of the desert regions of western Texas, 

 southern New Mexico, and Arizona, it is not infrequently met with at long 

 distances from water, and has even been found breeding in such localities. 

 It is only a summer resident in the more northern parts of its range, winter- 

 ing along the southern border of the United States, or passing south into 

 Mexico. Col. N. S. Gross has found it not uncommon in winter, in Kansas, 

 and I have met with it during every winter month at Fort Klamath, Oregon, 

 but not as frequently as in the summer. 



It is one of the earliest migrants to return to its breeding ground's, arriv- 

 ing about the latter part of February or the first week in March, and is 

 readily noticed then, both on account of its size and its shrill squeals, uttered 

 during the greater part of the day while circling high in the air, in prox- 

 imity to its future summer home. They appear to be very much attached 

 to certain localities and return to them from year to year. Their call notes 

 are very similar to those of the Eastern Red-tail. 



In Washington, Idaho, Oregon, and California it lives principally on the 

 different species of ground squirrels so common and destructive in these 

 States, as well as on chipmunks, mice, snakes, lizards, frogs, rabbits, and now 

 and then a chicken. I have never seen one molesting chickens during a 

 number of years' residence where these birds were not uncommon. Mr. 

 Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, California, corroborates this. He says: "I have 

 never known them to disturb domestic fowls. They subsist on small animals 

 and catch large numbers of snakes." Dr. E. A. Mearns, assistant surgeon, 

 U. S. Army, found remains of rattlesnakes in the crops of three specimens, 

 indicating that they are a match for even these poisonous reptiles. In the 

 late summer and fall they live to a great extent on grasshoppers, wherever 

 they are abundant, and seem to be very fond of them. Birds shot at such 

 times rarely contain any other food in their stomachs. 



Mr. William Lloyd writes me that in western Texas they feed on 

 prairie dogs, rock squirrels, cottontail and jack rabbits, an occasional Scaled 

 Partridge, and in winter sometimes on the carcasses of goats, sheep, and cattle, 

 sitting around like true Vultures waiting for sick animals to die. Mr. W. Otto 



