154 
FALCONS, HAWKS, EAGLES, ETC. 
goshawk are very similar to those of its eastern relative. It is 
equally destructive to small game of all kinds ... as well as to 
the fowls of the poultry yard. While nowhere abundant, it seems 
to be pretty generally distributed throughout the Blue Mountain 
region of Oregon and Washington, and breeds in suitable localities 
where food is plenty. During spring and summer it is seldom seen 
in the more open districts, though it is abundant enough later on, 
when the heavy snows drive the game into the foothills and lower 
valleys. . . . Besides a shrill scream of anger, they have a call-note 
resembling the word * keeah, keeah,’ or ‘ kree-ah,’ frequently re¬ 
peated, this note being often uttered in the early spring.” (Bendire.) 
GENUS PARABUTEO. 
335. Parabuteo unicinctus harrisi ( Aud .). Harris Hawk. 
Lores nearly naked and bristled ; middle toe much shorter than naked 
front of tarsus; inner webs of five outer quills cut out. Adults: upper 
parts dark brown, reddish brown on shoulders , under wing coverts and 
thighs ; tail black with white base, white coverts, and broad white band at 
tip. Young: under parts broadly streaked with dark brown on buffy and 
whitish ground; upper parts dark brown, streaked on head and neck with 
yellowish brown ; back marked with rufous, scapulars deep rufous; rump 
white; tail like adult, but with white terminal band narrower, and inner 
webs of feathers barred. Male: length 17.50-21.00, wing 12.35-13.75, 
tail 9.80-10.20, bill .90-.95. Female: length 21-24, wing 14.25-14.50, tail 
10.80-11.00, bill 1.08-1.10. 
Distribution. — From Mississippi to southern California, and south 
through Lower California and other parts of Mexico to Panama. 
Nest. — A platform of sticks, lined with grass, bark, moss, and roots 
placed in cactus, Spanish bayonet, mesquite, or other trees. Eggs : 2 to 4, 
soiled white, occasionally greenish, unmarked, or spotted lightly with pale 
brown or lavender. 
Food. — Largely offal, mammals, small reptiles, and occasionally birds. 
In southern Texas the rich rufous marks and swift, clear-cut flight 
of the Harris hawk soon become pleasantly familiar, for he is one of 
the hawks that are both common and tame on the coast prairies. He 
is so tame that as you drive by a telegraph pole on which he is perch¬ 
ing he will sometimes stand calmly on one foot looking down upon 
you with statue-like indifference. In the mesquite thickets you 
may meet one at close quarters as he dashes under the thorny bushes 
in quest of wood rats, ground squirrels, and the small game that 
abounds in these dwarf forests; and sometimes, as happened one 
day when we drove along the Nueces River, you will see him sit¬ 
ting on a low branch feasting on a wood rat captured at the door of 
its stick house close by. If you chance near the hawks’ nest a long 
harsh Buteo-like scream may make you look up to find one or both 
anxious birds circling overhead. A nest that was pointed out to 
me by the owners in Texas was in the top of a moss-hung hack- 
