The Swainson Hawk 



Hawk" because he looks as if he might carry off a hen. But as a matter 

 of fact, he wouldn't. He is content with far humbler quarry, such as 

 mice, moles, gophers, and the much-detested California ground squirrel. 

 Insects, such as grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, and the like, form an even 

 greater proportion of its food, and the Hawk is to be regarded as highly 

 beneficial. No more eloquent testimony could be adduced for its harm- 

 lessness than the almost habitual nesting of smaller birds in the same tree 

 with a Swainson Hawk. 





Taken in Merced County 



FEELING A LITTLE GROGGY 



A DAZED SWAINSON HAWK WHICH WE PHOTOGRAPHED ad lib. 



Photo by the A uthor 



Many observers have testified to this quaint form of hospitality, 

 and the following species of birds are known to have built into the actual 

 structure or under the shelter of occupied nests of the Hawk : Lanius ludo- 

 vicianus excubitorides, Icterus bullocki, I. cucullatus nelsoni, Carpodacus 

 mexicanus frontalis, and Tyrannus verticalis. The last-named is an espe- 

 cially common commensal, probably because exposed portions of the hawk's 

 prey, left, as they so often are, upon the side of the nest, are an attractive 

 bait for insects. Yet the bird whose portrait is presented herewith was 

 evidently suffering from the zeal of an undiscerning Tyrant. We picked 

 him up in a dazed condition, and figured from all the evidence that he must 

 have been struck by a Western Kingbird and put hors de combat, as he was 



1692 



