HOW A HAWK EATS HIS FOOD. 181 



fill, and so cruel as this great robber of the north which comes 

 in winter to the Northern states and is at once conspicuous by 

 his boldness, by his long tail and round wings, and by his steel- 

 blue upper parts when in full plumage, or his striped breast 

 when immature. 



These three — the goshawk which is rare, the little sharp- 

 shinned hawk, and his large cousin, the Cooper's hawk, which 

 you would probably mistake for a very large sharp-shinned 

 hawk unless you noticed critically the shape of the end of the 

 tail and the color of the top of the head — are the three most 

 destructive hawks. For all the others some good word can 

 be said. 



The sharp-shinned hawk has a double, the pigeon hawk, so 

 near like himself in size and color that even if you had both 

 in your hand you probably could not distinguish them until 

 advised how to do so. But besides differences in the bill, 

 the pigeon hawk's wings are sharp and pointed, while the 

 sharp-shinned hawk's are round. The two birds also fly very 

 differently, so that it is not hard to distinguish them in life. 



Are their feeding habits alike ? I never saw the j)igeon 

 hawk eat, but I have watched him clean himself up after a 

 meal. He Avas very leisurely about it, and must have spent at 

 least thii'ty minutes on his toilet, opening his tail and laying 

 the feathers in perfect order, spreading each wing and dress- 

 ing the quills with his bill, and putting up his claws to clean 

 his bill of feathers. I had not supposed that making its toilet 

 was such serious business with a hawk. 



Before we leave the subject let us look for a moment at the 

 hawk's foot. The sharp-shinned hawk, as you have guessed, 

 gets its name from its long slender legs. The tarsi and toes 

 are so thin that the bird looks spindle-shanked, and we note a 

 peculiar modification of the foot on this account. There are 



