218 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



My friend, Dr. William L. Ralph writes me: "Harlan's Hawk is not very- 

 uncommon, during the winter, in St. Johns and Putnam Counties, Florida, 

 but until this season I had taken it for the Caracara, which is quite rare 

 here, and I now believe that most of the Black Hawks seen by me during 

 past years were referable to this subspecies. They are exactly like the Red- 

 tailed Hawks except in color, and their call note is also the same, only being 

 longer drawn out. The call of the latter bird as already stated, sounds like 

 the squealing of a pig, or 'kee-ee-e,' and that of Harlan's Hawk like 'kee- 

 ee-ee-e-e-ee.' 



"They are not uncommon here in wild and unfrequented places, but 

 are seldom seen in the more settled parts. They are well known to the 

 native hunters and cattle men, who call them Groshawks. I have seen six 

 or eight different birds this season, 1891, that I am sure belonged to this sub- 

 species. The last one noticed by me was a few days before these notes 

 were written, on March 26. With the exception of the first pair, observed 

 on February 3, which acted as having taken possession of a large nest in 

 a pine tree, but which, on a subsequent visit, was found occupied by a pair 

 of Florida Barred Owls, I have seen no evidence of their breeding, nor 

 have I found an occupied nest, although a friend and myself, as well as two 

 assistants, have looked for them to the exclusion of other nests for the past 

 month. 



"If the grass in the low pine woods or prairies be fired, and these birds 

 are near enough to see the smoke, they will come to it at once, like the 

 Red-tailed and other Hawks already mentioned, and fly just ahead of the 

 blaze to catch the small mammals driven out by the heat. They are very 

 wild indeed, and unless concealed from their view it is almost impossible 

 for a person to get nearer to one than 300 yards. One of my assistants 

 tells me that on March 29 he saw five of these Hawks that came to a big 

 prairie fire that had been started. He said that a pair of these birds were 

 chasing one another as if they were mating, and that one flew into the 

 smoke and caught some small mammal which it gave to its mate. I have 

 examined several nests that I was told were occupied by these birds last 

 year, but have not found anything in them, and believe they have not begun 

 nesting yet." 



The nest and eggs of Harlan's Hawk are probably very similar to those 

 of the common Red-tailed Hawk. 



