113: 



Rural School Leaflet 



FALCONS 



The third type has rather heavy shoulders, short, pointed wings, and 

 narrow tail. In this type are included the duck hawk, the pigeon hawk, 

 and the sparrow hawk, but the last named is the only one of sufficiently 

 generally occurrence to have great importance in the State. It is com- 

 moij in most parts of the State about the borders of woods and pastures, 

 usually nesting in a deserted flicker's hole high up in a dead stub. The 



duck hawk and the pigeon 

 hawk, when they do occur, 

 frequently destroy many 

 pigeons, but the sparrow 

 hawk feeds mostly on the 

 larger insects, meadow mice, 

 and the smaller birds. Of 

 320 stomachs examined by 

 the Department of Agricul- 

 ture, not one contained 

 poultry, 215 contained in- 

 sects, 89 contained mice, and 

 53 contained small birds. 



SHORT-WINGED HAWKS, OR 

 ACCIPITERS 



The fourth group contains 

 the real poultry' thieves. 

 These birds have short, 

 rounded wings and long, 

 narrow tails. Three species 

 arc found in the State, but 

 the largest, the goshawk, is 

 rare. Of the other two 

 species, the Cooper's hawk is 

 the larger, the females some- 

 times measuring nearly 

 twenty inches in length, although the males are barely sixteen inches 

 long. The largest (female) sharp-shinned hawks never measure over 

 fourteen inches, and the males measure less than twelve. Both species 

 are much alike in coloration, immature birds being brown above and 

 white below with longitudinal streaks of dark brown. Old birds are 

 slaty gray above and white below, heavily barred with brown. In addition 

 to its larger size, the Cooper's hawk differs from the sharp-shinned in 

 having a rounded tail, that of the sharp-shinned being square. 



Immature red-shouldered hawk, a heneficial species 



