The Audubon Caracara 



No. 323 



Audubon's Caracara 



A. 0. U. No. 362. Polyborus cheriway auduboni Cassin. 



Description. — Adults (sexes alike) : Crown, nape, and general body plumage 

 black; foreparts, narrowly, except crown, pale ochraceous or creamy buff, immaculate 

 anteriorly, finely barred with black in increasing abundance until complete transition 

 is effected on back and breast; under tail-coverts tipped distally with black; basal 

 portion of tail and concealed portions of wing-quills similarly cream-buff or dingy- 

 white, obscurely barred with black. "Bill variously pale colored; cere carmine; iris 

 brown; feet yellow; claws black; soft parts [i. e., exposed anterior portion of face] 

 drying to a dingy indefinable color" (Coues). Young birds resemble adults, but are 

 brownish black, the markings lengthwise in streaks instead of bars, save on tail where 

 conspicuously barred. Length of adult 609.6 (24.00) or less; wing up to 419. 1 (16.50); 

 tail 203.2-254 (8.00-10.00); culmen 34.3 (1.35); tarsus 91.4 (3.60). 



Recognition Marks. — Gull size; contrasting black of body-color and crown 

 with light buffy of foreparts and circular investiture of bars on breast, sides of neck, 

 and back unmistakable. Anterior portion of head without feathers. Deportment 

 varied and often unhawklike. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in California. Nest: Of sticks or twigs lined 

 with usnea or grass, and placed indifferently in trees, sahuaros, or sturdy shrubs. 

 Eggs: 2 or 3; basally buffy white or pinkish white, but usually completely buried under 

 pigment of the richest rufous (carob brown) washing to sayal brown, russet, or walnut- 

 brown, — the darkest of falconine eggs. Av. size 60 x 47 (2.36 x 1.85); index 78.3. 

 Season: Feb. 15— April, according to altitude. 



Range of Polyborus cheriway. — Southern portion of United States south to 

 Guiana, Venezuela, and Ecuador. 



Range of P. e. auduboni. — The southern border of the southwestern states 

 from Arizona to Texas and south to Central America. Accidental in California. 



Occurrence in California. — Accidental. One record: bird well observed by 

 Prof. Harold Heath and W. W. Curtner near Monterey "in the winter of 1916." 



Authorities. — Heermann {Polyborus tharus), Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv., vol. x., 

 1859, p. 30 (Colorado River, near Ft. Yuma); Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Hist. N. 

 Am. Birds, vol. iii., 1874, p. 178 (syn., desc, habits, etc.; Calif, occurrence); Heath, 

 Condor, vol. xxi.,,1919, p. 125 (near Monterey, during February, 1916). 



A MARKED CHARACTER is that of Polyborus cheriway auduboni, 

 and its accidental occurrence near Monterey 1 affords us a welcome excuse 

 to consider it as a bird of California. The Caracara is neither a hawk nor 

 a vulture nor an eagle, although he is each by turns, and he figures in the 

 last-named capacity upon the coat-of-arms of Mexico. Supported 

 vaguely by a cactus, the intrepid bird is there represented as seizing a 

 serpent, presumably a rattler, somewhere near the nape of the neck (but 

 not too near to give the squirming reptile a sporting chance). That the 



1 Harold Heath in The Condor, Vol. XXI., May. ioro, p. 123. 



1643 



