HAWKS. 



I WAS once watching a flock of sparrows feeding 

 and singing, flying after each other or up to the 

 fence posts, when suddenly the singing stopped, and 



not a bird stirred a 

 feather. I looked up, 

 and in the sky I saw 

 a small hawk soaring 

 and flapping; till he 

 was out of sight, you 

 would have believed 

 the field was empty; 

 then the singing and 

 fluttering began again. 

 Often the little hawk 

 comes up so silently 

 that he sees the birds 

 before they have a 

 chance to " play pos- 

 sum." Then a chase 

 begins, the little birds trying to reach bushes where 

 they can slip into a tangle, the hawk trying to strike 

 or seize them with his curved toes, — talons they are 

 called. 



'^^^-^^l^M, 



Fig. 44. — Cooper's Hawk. 



