Rural School Leaflet 1131 



them into the nest. The orchard orioles, on the other hand, always 

 build their nests of wiry grasses of a straw color, and they never hang 

 them on the outer branches but prefer the tops of scrubby fruit trees. 



The eggs of both species are white or bluish white, spotted and scratched 

 with black, those of the orchard oriole having more of the spots and 

 those of the Baltimore having more of the scratches. 



HAWK 

 Thirteen species of hawks are found more or less regularly in New York 

 State; but three of these — the goshawk, the pigeon hawk, and the duck 

 hawk are too rare to be of great importance. All the hawks vary so much 

 in size and in coloration with both age and sex that it is difficult to de- 

 scribe any species in a few words, but four types are recognized in addition 

 to the bald eagle and the osprey, or fish hawk. 



HARRIERS 



The first of these types, the harriers, includes only the marsh hawk, 

 a long-winged, long-tailed hawk with a conspicuous white patch above 

 its tail. It is like the owls in having a facial disk of short feathers, and 

 very well-developed ears. The ears undoubtedly assist the bird in fol- 

 lounng its prey, consisting largely of mice, through the long grass of the 

 fields and marshes, which it inhabits. In addition to mice, the marsh 

 hawk feeds on snakes, frogs, insects, and small birds. Occasionally it 

 takes young chickens or small ducks; but of 124 stomachs examined by 

 Dr. Fisher, of the Biological Survey at Washington, D.C., only 7 showed 

 any sign of having taken poultry. This is, therefore, a highly beneficial 

 species, deserving of protection. 



BROAD-WINGED OR FAN-TAILED HAWKS 



The second type includes the red-shouldered, the red-tailed, the rough- 

 legged, and the broad-winged species. They are alike in possessing 

 broad, rounded wings, and broad, comparatively short tails, which they 

 usually spread in a fanlike manner while soaring. They are the most 

 conspicuous of all the hawks, being often seen soaring in great circles 

 overhead. Because of their conspicuousness they have had to suffer for 

 all the crimes of their more crafty relatives, and are frequently known as 

 hen hawks or chicken hawks. As a matter of fact they seldom, if ever, 

 visit the poultry yard, and the few times that they do are more than 

 offset by the numbers of obnoxious rodents that they destroy. Of 105 

 stomachs of the rough-legged and the broad-winged species examined, 

 not one contained poultry; of 782 of the red- tailed and the red-shouldered 

 hawks, only 57 contained poultry or game birds. 



