The Prairie Falcon 



settled again within ten feet. Thinking of a possible nest, I dismounted 

 and turned my horse's head, disturbing as I did so another lark from my 

 very feet, and putting the first bird to flight for some two or three rods 

 further. At that moment a Falcon flashed past my head with a quick 

 Idhuff, and before I could recover from amazement, the Hawk was speed- 

 ing out of sight with the lark in its talons. So instant was the Falcon's 

 swoop that I, although looking straight at the scene, could not have told 

 within ten feet where the Hawk annexed the lark. 



The bird makes little fuss over the capture of small game. It simply 

 materializes out of the empty blue and picks up a gopher or a blackbird as 

 quietly as you would pluck a flower. The approach has doubtless been 

 nicely calculated. The thunderbolt, launched from the height of half a 

 mile, has been checked every few hundred feet by a slight opening of the 

 wings, that the Falcon might gauge the caliber and intent of the victim ; 

 and the final plunge has, therefore, the speed and accuracy of fate. In 

 case of larger game the quarry is knocked headlong by a crashing blow, 

 after which the assailant turns to try conclusions as to weight. But the 

 Falcon prefers always to snatch, and when small game is abundant, the 

 bird is less likely to disturb rabbits or poultry. 



The first requirement of the Prairie Falcon is open country; and the 

 second a cranny where she may lay her young. These conditions are 

 ideally met in a low range of hills which run north and south through 

 eastern San Luis Obispo County, and form the backbone of that "cattle 

 country" made famous in story and song by deeds of vaquero and mis- 

 deeds of brigand. To the westward lie other rolling hills carpeted with 

 bunch-grass and dotted with oaks. To the eastward stretches the arid 

 interior plain. This cardinal ridge, by reason of the torrential character 

 of the occasional rains of that country, is deeply scored by lateral canyons, 

 and "breaks" in a thousand walls, walls which vary in appearance from 

 the sloping adobe of the north to the rugged escarpments of sandstone, 

 conglomerate, and Pecten beds, which front the upper San Juan. Here 

 are the castles, and there are the banqueting tables. For the presence 

 of cattle means insects, and insects imply insect-eating birds, and In- 

 sectivores mean Raptor es. If we use birds-of-prey in the economic instead 

 of the structural sense, and so include Magpie, Raven, and Shrike, then 

 this cattle country is ravaged by no less than 23 species of feathered 

 bandits (and ghouls) ; and of these we actually saw nineteen in the course 

 of a three weeks' reconnaissance in April, 191 2. 



Of Falcones proper, after the ubiquitous Kestrel (Cerchneis s. sparve- 

 rius), the Prairie Falcon is most numerous in fact, and least evident to casual 

 notice. It is his proper domain, but he rules it invisibly from on high. 

 His business with earth is quickly despatched, and he is off again, while 



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