Page:Condor4(5).djvu/16

 6 THE CONDOR [ Vol. IV the same time with the other gold- finches. I have concluded from the foregoing that so-called arizon is only an ex- treme, and by no means unco,mmon, male plumage of the Arkansas Gold- finch, in which the black dorsal mark- ings become to a varying degree ex- tended. For this reason I included arizone in its various combinations among the synonyms of tstra,_ffalinus psaltriapsaltria in the Checklist. This of course must be understood to apply only to California birds. The status of the psaltria group elsewhere may be entirely otherwise. There are no spec- imens at hand, so I have no means of knowing. Nesting of Swains0n Hawk. BY C. S. SHARP HE Swainson hawk (]uteo swain- soni) is one of the most interesting of our western raptores. Less well known, perhaps, because of its quiet and unassuming nature and its lack of propensity to wander but it is one of our most useful birds and well worthy of every protection from the naturalist and the farmer. Indeed there is no one of the raptorial group that is more generally beneficial, for its food supply consists wholly of those four- footed pests which every farmer and ranch man recognizes as among his worst enemies. Of the breeding hawks of this section although the only one that is not resi- dent, it is the most abundant, and seems to have become more so in recent years than formerly. Previous to 897 it was quite scarce and I very seldom saw it although I frequently recognized it in descriptions by the small boys here, of a bird they called the "Mexican black hawk" or the "five dollar hawk" from the price of the eggs of that spec- ies in Lattin's catalogue. Up to that time Buteo linealus ele,ans was quite common but swainsoni seems to have taken its place to a large extent, and the former is now very scarce--so much so that when in 896 there were four pair of birds breeding in a stretch of river timber of about two miles there is now only one. All the old nests are occupied by owls or the swainsoni. While lCuteo borealis calurus is more ESCONDIDO CAL. common in the higher foothill country swainsoni seems to prefer the lower levels and especialiy favors the fringe of sycamores and cottonwood trees along the rivers, becoming seemingly. attached to a certain locality and re- turning to it year after year. Each pair of hawks seems to have its particu- lar hunting ground and they never stray far from home The appearance of a pair of these birds in the breeding season is a pretty certain indication that their nest is near. They are inde- fatiguable hunters and from their first arrival until their departure in the fall they may be constantly seen circling high in air or sailing low over fields and hillsides ever on the watch for some luckless squirrel or mouse that has wandered too far from protecting shelter. Of these and other four-footed pests of the farmer, with an occasional lizard or insect it makes its diet and is essentially not a "hen hawk." It seems to have only a passing fancy for small birds and doubtless would not take them if other food were in plenty. This fact the small birds seem to under- stand and do not fear to build their nests in the same tree with them. I have found nests of [cterus bullocki, Col- afiles caret collaris, 7'yrannus verticalis, Zenaidra macroura and Cabodacus mexicanusfrontalis all in the same tree with swainsoni and the nest of the saucy Carpodacus was snugly' ensconced on the side of the latter. No other