THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 33 



The hen-hawk is the most noticeable. He likes 

 the haze and calm of these long, warm days. He 

 is a bird of leisure, and seems always at his ease. 

 How beautiful and majestic are his movements! 

 So self-poised and easy, such an entire absence of 

 haste, such a magnificent amplitude of circles and 

 spirals, such a haughty, _ imperial grace, and, occa- 

 sionally, such daring aerial evolutions ! 



With slow, leisurely movement, rarely vibrating 

 his pinions, he mounts and mounts in an ascending 

 spiral till he appears a mere speck against the sum- 

 mer sky; then, if the mood seizes him, with wings 

 half- closed, like a bent bow, he will cleave the air 

 almost perpendicularly, as if intent on dashing 

 himself to pieces against the earth; but on nearing 

 the ground he suddenly mounts again on broad, 

 expanded wing, as if rebounding upon the air, and 

 sails leisurely away. It is the sublimest feat of 

 the season. One holds his breath till he sees him 

 rise again. 



If inclined to a more gradual and less precipi- 

 tous descent, he fixes his eye on some distant point 

 in the earth beneath him, and thither bends his 

 course. He is still almost meteoric in his speed 

 and boldness. You see his path down the heavens, 

 straight as a line ; if near, you hear the rush of his 

 wings; his shadow hurtles across the fields, and in 

 an instant you see him quietly perched upon some 

 low tree or decayed stub in a swamp or meadow, 

 with reminiscences of frogs and mice stirring in his 

 maw. 



