The Harris Hawk 



or to watch for prey. Its flight, however, is more frequently direct and 

 much more rapid than in the case of any Buteo. 



Early observers formed the impression of a sluggish, impassive bird, 

 but the discipline of gun-fire must have taught it a good deal of caution. 

 Mr. Brooks and I encountered the Harris Hawk on several occasions near 

 Potholes, in February, 1913, but were unable to secure a specimen. Nor 

 did the M. C. O. expedition to Arizona succeed any better in the spring 

 of 191 7, although we met the species several times, both on the Gila 

 River and at our camp near Tucson. The birds were simply unapproach- 

 able save by 8-power binoculars. 



According to Mr. Vernon Bailey, who had unusual opportunity to 

 observe this species in Texas, it feeds largely upon small mammals, es- 

 pecially the wood rats (Neotoma). A nest which he found was nearly 

 covered with the remains of these animals, including a dozen skulls. This 

 hardly comports with Coues' designation of the species as the "Carrion 

 Buzzard"; and it seems probable that this veteran overestimated the 

 extent to which P. u. harrisi subsists upon carrion. The summer of 191 7 

 should have provided a fair test of this characteristic, for the cattle in 

 southern Arizona were dying off like flies, yet while we frightened numbers 

 of the Audubon Caracara from carcasses, we saw no Harris Hawks sim- 

 ilarly employed. 



Probably the Harris Hawk is extending its range northward and west- 

 ward, and will continue to do so if we can ever persuade the farmers that 

 a live gopher-killer, always on the job, is a priceless boon to society, even 

 though his shadow should accidentally fall upon the sacred precincts 

 of the chicken yard. This handsome black hawk has never been known 

 to kill birds, let alone hens; and it is a crime to shoot it for anything 

 less than scientific purposes. 



To that veteran collector, Mr. Frank Stephens, belongs the honor 

 of having first established the right of Harris Hawks to a place in the Cali- 

 fornia list. He took a specimen and saw two others in August, 1902, l 

 on the Colorado River, near Ehrenberg. Mr. H. E. Wilder 2 saw these 

 birds in considerable numbers at Palo Verde, further down the river, in 

 December of the same year, and supposed that they were taking refuge 

 in the river bottom from the sand storms which were raging in the ad- 

 joining desert. Mr. Leo Wiley took a specimen, Nov. 1st, 1914; and 

 afterwards (April 5th, 1917), in company with Dr. Loye Holmes Miller, 

 of Los Angeles, discovered a nest, the first for California. 3 Mr. Wiley 

 reports that the three eggs were placed in a nest, presumably an old one, 

 which he had seen the winter before in a mistletoe clump in a mesquite 



1 Condor. Vol. V„ May. 1903. p. 77. 



- Condor, Vol. XVIII.. May. 1916. p. 127. 



3 Condor. Vol. XIX.. July. 1917. p. 142. 



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