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 September, 19o2. I THE CONDOR hawk would allow such great familiar- ity and the smaller birds know it for they do not attempt it with them. The Swainson hawks arrive here from the south about the toth to 2oth of March, sometimes in large flocks or in bands of a dozen or two. The earliest and largest flocks all go north, the summer residents not coming until a couple or three weeks later, and going at once to their quarters which they refit preparatory to permanent occupancy later o,n. The species, as it appears in this locality, and so far as I know throughout the state, is of the very dark phase of plumage. I have watched the migrations and the breeding birds here very carefully for several years in the hope of finding a light colored spec- imen but nothing but the dark phase has ever come under my observation. Specimens of both sexes in my collec- tion show no conspicuous white areas on under parts--indeed no white at all, the body being of a uniform dark brown throughout. The darkest specimen (a female) shows only a lighter tawny coloring on tibia', flanks and crissum. The lightest (a younger male) shows much more tawny on tibie, flanks and crissum and extending up over the belly, and the lining of wings is lighter than in any specimen I have seen, showing whitish darker and tawny barring, the rest be- ing the same dark brown as in other specimens. In view of the present ten- dency for subdivision it seems strange that this dark phase of swaitsoni should have escaped. If one compares the bird with the book description--Coues for instance--he will be at a loss to know where to place it for Coues speaks of the "immaculate throat" and "white under parts, etc." which are wholly lacking in the bird we have here. Dr. A. K. Fisher has written me that the dark phase is not wholly re- stricted as to locality and that there is a seeming tendency among dark birds to develop light colored young and vice versa. I have never observed such an occurrence here. I am not wholly a believer in the present hair-splitting tendency for subdivision but it seems to me that one dark phase of t?uteo swain- soni should be worthy of recognition. The x)est of the Swainson hawk is the usual bulky, unsightly mass of sticks of the raptores, and is placed near the top or on a sraM1 outlying branch of a cottonwood or sycamore at an elevation of about 50 feet. (My records run from 35 to 75 feet.) Occa- sionally a live oak will be taken but as I know of only one such instance, it can hardly be considered regular in this section, at least. If disturbed from the nest the bird will glide gently away without a sound, sometimes to a nearby tree where it Will sit until the intruder is gone but most always to a distance of a quarter or half a mile where it will sail in wide circles in apparent indifference. Al- though the birds--even if their eggs are taken--will return to the same locality year after year and generally to their first nest I have never known them to attempt a second set in a nest just dis- turbed. They sometimes will occupy an old nest nearby, but in almost every in- stance in my experience have built a new nest quite near to the old one but a little higher up and a little further out towards the end of the branch, as though they had learned wisdom by experience. On May 5, I9O a set of two eggs was taken from a sycamore about fifty feet from the ground, no- where near the top of the tree. The birds moved to another sycamore 20o yards away and by May 12 a week later, had built another nest at the top of the tree and seventy-two feet from the ground. This also contained two eggs which were taken. The birds then moved on a few hundred yards to a much taller sycamore and built a nest in the top of that, and well out of reach and raised their young in peace. The new nest built for this second set was, naturally, a very poor affair,