The Ferruginous Rough-leg 



bird west of the Rocky Mountains is that by C. S. McCarthy in Rush Valley, Utah, 

 May 3, 1859 (Bendire, "Life Histories," vol. i., p. 262). Winters south to Lower 

 California and Mexico and casually east to Illinois and Wisconsin. 



Distribution in California. — Formerly abundant winter resident and migrant 

 both in San Diego district and San Joaquin-Sacramento Valley; also on northeastern 

 plateau. Now very rare; three occurrences reported in past dozen years. The "breed- 

 ing record" (Cosumnes River, 1851, Heermann, Pac. R. R. Rep., x., 1859, pp. 32, 33) 

 is very unsatisfactory. 



Authorities. — Lichtenstein (Falco [Buleo] ferrugineus), Abhand. Konigl. Akad. 

 Wiss., Berlin, 1838, p. 428 (orig. desc. ; Monterey); Cones, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 1866, p. 46 (s. Calif.; desc, meas. ; anatomical); ibid., Birds of the Northwest, 1874, 

 P- 363 (syn., desc; habits, etc.); Oberholser, Auk, vol. xxxvi., 1919, p. 420 (syst., 

 nomencl.). 



HOWEVER sanguine one's temperament, it is impossible to follow 

 the history of this gently noble bird of prey without being overtaken by 

 sadness. Our human breed is still, apparently, so undeveloped, so un- 

 aware, that many noble aspects of nature and many precious fellow 

 creatures must be sacrificed before we will give effective heed to the 

 modern prophets of conservation. In particular, our ruthless and undis- 

 criminating slaughter of the birds of prey is one of the most deplorable of 

 all examples of human folly. Jealousy of the hawk is as ancient as the 

 institution of hens. Nay, it is more ancient, for, without doubt, Urbuteo, 

 the Pleistocene hawk, quick of eye, must at some time have seized and 

 borne off a rabbit which our shaggy ancestor, Onkh, had just bowled over 

 with a far-flung stone. His Hairy Highness was disgruntled. The feud 

 was on, and war thenceforth was incessant, with the odds in favor of the 

 bird until the modern shot-gun appeared. The rest was easy. We are 

 avenged! Yes; and immeasurably impoverished. 



Take, for example, the case of the "California Squirrel Hawk." 

 These Ferruginous Rough-legs were so common in the early days, the 

 Fifties and Sixties of last century, and their presumptive usefulness was 

 so clearly noted, that by common consent they received the name of 

 California Squirrel Hawk. As destroyers of those hated rodents Citella 

 beecheyi and their allies, the Squirrel Hawks were worth their weight in gold 

 to the young State of California. They were never known to attack or 

 destroy domestic fowl of any kind. Yet so poorly did our fathers requite 

 their services that a recent authority 1 could say: "Now notably scarce 

 or altogether wanting in all regions from which recent reports have been 

 made." Contrast this with Cooper's account written in, or at least valid 

 for, 1870: "This large and powerful bird abounds in spring and fall in 

 the southwestern parts of California, ... I found it common in December 

 at Martinez, and few probably migrate beyond (i. e. south of) this State. 



1 Grinnell: A Distributional List o ithe Birds of California, Oct. 25, 1915, p. 66. 



1699 



