CLASS AVES. 



157 



Fia. 266. 



The Caracara Eagle of tropical America relishes dead 

 and living animals equal- 

 ly, and carries off its prey 

 with either beak or claw. 

 Associated in the extreme 

 Southern States with the 

 true vultures, it completes 

 their scavenger work. 



The G-osltaiclc, (gos'hak), 

 or Blue Hen ITaick, flies 

 low, until just over its 

 prey, when it stretches down its powerful talons and 

 catches it up, with hardly a deviation from a horizontal 



Polybu'rus tlta ruts. Caracara Eagle, 



course." 



FIG 2iiT 



FIG 268 



As'tur atricapil'lus. Goshawk. (, T V) Fiil'co sparve'nus. Sparrow Hawk. (J.) 



The Sparrow Haiclc, though one of the smallest, is a 

 typical Falcon, having a notched oill. So quickly does it 

 close its wings when alighting that they seem to dis- 



* A G-oshawk -was once observed to dart with the swiftness of an arrow upon 

 a flock of blackbirds crossing a river, and giving five successively the death- 

 squeeze, to return and pick them up one by one and bear them to the shore to 

 be eaten at leisure. 



