[1903. Hedley — A Red-Shouldered Hawk ix Captivity. 53 

 A RKD-SHOULDERED HAWK IN CAPTIVITY. 



Roger T. Hedley, Duncrief, Ont. 



(Read before Ihe Oriiitholog-ical Branch of the Entomological Society of 



Canada. ) 



One day in October, 1901, I went out for some sport with my 

 ifun. I had not gone far when I noticed a hawk sitting on a 

 dead branch of an ehn tree. It was a good distance, but I thought 

 I would try a shot. The first barrel only startled it ; but, before 

 it had gone far, the second shot dropped it. My dog ran to the 

 hawk, which threw itself on its back and showed fight. I threw 

 my coat over it, slipped a strong cord around its neck and carried 

 it to the barn, where I placed it in a large box with a slat front. 

 The only wound was on the left wing, and the bone had not been 

 broken. 



I placed a perch in the box for the hawk to sit on and soon 

 it jumped up. The first thing I got for it to eat, was an English 

 sparrow. When I threw the bird into the box, the hawk seemed 

 frightened and did not ofi^er to touch it till I stepped away from 

 the box. Then it jumped down from the perch, and, having seized 

 the sparrow with its talons and spread its wings, it marched 

 around carrying the bird in its claws. Before commencing to eat 

 the sparrow, it picked out the wing feathers and tnost of the small 

 feathers of the body. After each mouthful of feathers, it would 

 glance sharply around to see if anything was going to interfere. 

 It -first ate th©- head and then proceeded to devour the remainder. 

 I fed it mostly on sparrows during th& winter, but occasionally 

 found H mouse, \\4iich it seemed to relish better than sparrows. 

 My hawk soon became so tame th«,t it would start to eat its food 

 without waiting for one to retire. After sei«ing a mouse in its 

 claws, it would pick it up with its bill, then catch it again with its 

 claws before eating it. It always ate the he.ad of a mouse first, 

 and usually swallowed or tried to swallow the hind quarters along 

 with the tail. Sometimes 1 have seen it stick at this last opera- 

 tion, when it had to pull its mouthful out again with its claws. 

 Then it took a few bites before the tail disappeared. 



After the snow went away last spring, it was an easy matter 

 to turn over old logs or stumps near the woods and get mice for 



