The Western Red-tailed Hawk 



Taken near Santa. Barbara 



bluish white, unmarked, or else blotched and clouded with rufous, and 

 are laid in March or from the first to the third week in April, according 

 to local conditions. Incubation lasts about four weeks, and the young 

 remain in the nest five or six weeks longer. The young birds are fed 

 exclusively on flesh, and it is a point of honor with the parents to keep an 

 abundant supply of this on hand. What the chicks cannot eat at once 



is left conveniently near, on one side 

 of the nest, and it is an easy matter, 

 through frequent visits, to check up 

 on the Buteonine bill of fare. 



While the Redtail is, honestly, a 

 very beneficial species, he is no saint. 

 Prudential considerations, only, 

 restrain him from attacks on the 

 poultry yard. His staple articles of 

 diet are the familiar round of ground 

 squirrels, gophers, wood-rats, mice, 

 snakes, frogs, lizards and insects. In- 

 dividuals differ, naturally, both in 

 taste and in prowess. I once fright- 

 ened a Redtail from the carcass of a 

 fresh-killed Scoter. The duck 

 seemed to have been in good flesh, 

 but there is always a suspicion of 

 such birds along this Santa Barbara 

 coast. A Redtail infant near Cho- 

 lame had a headless snake and a 

 fledgling House Finch awaiting the 

 pleasure of its appetite ; but a Brewer 

 Blackbird sat undisturbed on eggs 

 not two feet away from the young- 

 ster's nose. On Santa Cruz Island 

 I saw a male Redtail visit his mate, 

 who was just beginning to incubate, 

 and leave for her acceptance a dainty 

 in the shape of a Rufous-crowned 

 Sparrow. Rather high living! but 

 Santa Cruz Island is a gopherless, 

 squirrelless, wood-ratless and all but 

 pestless land. 



These evidences are offered by 

 way of concession, and in the interest 



Photo by H. T. Van Winkle 



AN IMMATURE WESTERN REDTAIL 



EVIDENTLY A WOUNDED BIRD 



1682 



