252 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The first pair of these birds seen by me were circling 1 high in the air 

 above the timber in the Rillitto Creek bottom near Tucson, Arizona, on April 

 9, 1872. After sailing around for sometime, they finally perched on a dead 

 limb of a cottonwood. During the next week I noticed several other pairs 

 and watched them carefully in order to locate their nesting sites ; they were 

 not at all shy, and, had I been so inclined, could have secured a number 

 of specimens with but little trouble. From that time on not a day passed 

 without my seeing two or three pairs of these handsome little Goshawks 

 (which were readily recognized by their light color) engaged in sailing grace- 

 fully over the tree tops, now sportively chasing each other, or again circling 

 around, the female closely followed by the male, uttering at the same time 

 a very peculiar piping note, which reminded me of that given by the Long- 

 billed Curlew in the early spring (while hovering in the air in the manner of 

 a Sparrow Hawk), rather than the shrill cries or screams usually uttered by 

 birds of prey. To my ear, there was something decidedly flute-like about 

 these notes. After they were paired they became more silent. 



When in search of food their flight is powerful, active, and easily con- 

 trolled. I have seen one of them dart to the ground with arrow-like swift- 

 ness to pick up some bird, lizard, or rodent, continuing its flight without any 

 stop whatever. A good proportion of their food consists of beetles, large 

 grasshoppers (a species of which about 3 inches long was especially abundant), 

 and other insects; these are mostly caught on the wing, and I believe small 

 birds also form no inconsiderable portion of their food, as I have seen them 

 chasing such. 



Mr. F. Stephens compares their cry to a loud "creer," repeated four or five 

 times, and says that at a distance it sounds much like the scream of a 

 peacock. The stomachs of the specimens examined by him contained lizards, 

 small squirrels, fish scales, the wing covers of beetles, and fur and bones of 

 small unrecognizable rodents. 



About the last week in April several pairs had selected their nesting 

 sites within a radius of 10 miles from my camp, and commenced building. 

 All the nests found by me, four in number, were placed in cottonwood trees, 

 usually the largest to be found in the vicinity, and as near their tops as they 

 could be placed with security. 



The first nest was obtained on May 17, and the male, who was sitting 

 on a limb close by, was shot. This nest was located in the topmost branches 

 of a large cottonwood tree near the laguna, the sink of the Santa Cruz 

 River, not less than 70 feet from the ground, and contained three fresh 

 eggs, the only set I found which contained this number. The nest, not a 

 very substantial affair, consisted of a shallow platform, composed principally 

 of small cottonwood twigs, a number of which were green and had been 

 broken by the birds themselves. I have seen them do this, selecting a suit- 

 able twig, then flying at it very swiftly, grasping it with their talons, and 

 usually succeeding in breaking it off at the first trial. 



