HAWKS, EAGLES, KITES: MARSH HAWK 183 
early June, 1899, near Roswell (Bailey). In the Pecos Valley, four were seen four 
miles south of Lake Arthur on Cottonwood Draw, June 25, 1913, and the species 
was noted northeast of Roswell, June 27, 1913 (Ligon). [At Lake Burford, May- 
June, 1918, a female was observed, but apparently did not nest (Wetmore)J On 
June 28, 1913, they were common on Salt Creek nesting in the big marshes at the 
mouth of Salt Draw, IS miles northeast of Roswell, and ton June 16-21, 1918, two 
were again seen in the same locality. On May 30 at the Salt Draw, and June 6 
and 7, 1924, in the White Lakes and Kenna sections, others were seen, some of which 
were undoubtedly breeding birds (Ligon).]—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually on the ground among bushes, rank grass, or rushes; on dry 
ground slightly made, on wet ground, a bulky mass of dried grass and sometimes 
twigs. Eggs: Usually 3 to 6, dull white, bluish, or greenish white, generally im¬ 
maculate, but sometimes faintly spotted with pale brown or lilac. 
Food. —Favorite general diet meadow mice, gophers, squirrels, young rabbits, 
and other rodents; but also lizards, snakes, frogs, and small birds, mainly the least 
useful ground-dwelling sparrows; but locally, “crouching birds—rails, snipe, grouse, 
hen pheasants”; also locally on the marshes, crippled, molting, and young waterfowl. 
General Habits. —In whatever plumage, whether the perfected, 
gull-like pale blue or bluish gray of the rare old male or the rusty brown 
of the female and immature, the Marsh Hawk can be recognized by its 
white upper tail coverts, as it beats low over the ground hunting for 
mice and other small rodents. One found in the San Andres Mountains 
had caught and eaten a kangaroo rat and one of the destructive cotton 
rats. At Carlsbad in the fall migration we saw one doing good work in 
an alfalfa field, and when going down from the junipers into the cul¬ 
tivated valleys we often saw them hunting over the ground. In the 
White Mountains, Mr. Hollister found them hunting at about 12,000 
feet, near the summit of the range, evidently called there by the im¬ 
mense numbers of meadow mice inhabiting the grassy patches (MS). 
The Marsh Hawk is one of the especially important friends of the ranch¬ 
man, ranking with the most beneficial hawks, and should be vigoiously 
protected except where local conditions call for “ local control under 
proper legal supervision.” 
Some interesting field notes on this “ Citizen of the Marshes aie 
given by Dr. F. N. Wilson. As a male that he was watching was return¬ 
ing to his nest in the grass, he carried in his talons what looked like a 
mouse. “As he circled high over the nest, the female rose, and flying 
just beneath him, she reached upward and grasped the prey join is 
claws with her beak,” carrying it quickly back to the young in t, le nes 
At another time this efficient mother, on returning to the grounc nes , 
found her independent brood in the shade outside. At sight of her, 
“the older ones crawled back; the younger ones she grasped with her 
beak just back of the head, and, in spite of their cries, lep ace t lem 
one by one in the nest” (1927, pp. 399-401). 
The courtship habits of these original hawks have attracted much 
attention, the male performing “in much the same manner as a tumbler 
