146 THE CONDOR ] VOL. VIII ing-to-learn farmer to whom every hawk is a "hen hawk", and the snmll boy with a gun to whom every large bird is natural prey, and ninny are sacrificed needlessly. All hawks amonl? the unknowing have a wholly unfair reputation where poultry is concerned; for the sins of the unjust are visited upon them all. One handsome t1. lineattts eleans is as slight a danger to a chicken yard as any Raptor we have; I might ahnost say as any bird we have. Nearly every nest of the species that t know of is within a few hundred yards of some barn yard and it is very, very sel- dom the birds exact tribute. One of my friends in San Pasqual Valley, where these hawks are common, told me the red-bellied and red-tailed hawks had nested on his ranch as long as he could remember' (he is a very old resident) and it was very seldom they would touch a chicken tho the latter were running free all the time. The young hawk in the photo was froln a nest in a tree in his barn yard, not over 150 feet from the barn itself. The milk house was under the next tree in the small grove of big Eucalyptus trees at one side of and partly in the corral, the fence of which shows in the photo. The chicken YOUNG RED-BELLIED HAWK house is between the milk house and the barn. All the time I was at the nest some 200 chick- ens of all ages. and sizes were working around the barn yard, in the corral and out on the stubble beyond, many of them fully 200 yards froln shelter but they never even gave a warning cry when the old hawk flew from the nest across the yard. The young birds were at an age when their demands for food must have been very great, and there was only one parent bird to look after theln, the nmle bird having been shot a few weeks before by a new hired man. One would think that yellow-legged chickens so con- venient would prove too great an attraction to the doubly worked mother but they were never touched. The young hawks would have flown in a couple of weeks. The down had nearly disappeared and flight and tail feathers were about two-thirds developed. In appearance they resembled the female bird, the brighter plumage of the male not developing until nmturity. One of the young was very cross when I went up to the nest, screanfing and striking with her wings, and when moved froln a perilous position near the edge of the nest rolled over on her back and tried to scratch. Her bad temper brought her to a sad ending for she managed to fall out of the nest to the ground, some 50 feet or more, landing heavily and when I got to her she was only a poor little bunch of feathers, and would scream no more. She had been well cared for. Dissection showed a full stomach and crop--a field mouse entire, parts of skulls of two more and a various assortment of small bones and fur and part of the foot of some small bird which I could not identify. The nest contained part of a brush rabbit and some squirrel fur. Her nest mate was quite tame, perched confidingly on my
