THE RED-TAILED HAWK, 93 



breeze, precisely like the trimming of a sail. But to hover 

 is the most wonderful feat of the bird — to make rapid 

 strokes with the wings, and yet remain at the same point in 

 the air. Who has not seen the King-fisher, or the Spar- 

 row Hawk hover ? or the Humming-bird, as it poises itself 

 in front of the flower, to capture the insects housed in its 

 beautiful chambers, or to sip its nectar? This is done by an 

 oblique stroke of the wings. The bird is never in a horizontal 

 position in hovering, but always poised at an angle, thus 

 allowing the air to escape from the wing in such a manner 

 as simply to keep it up. Here is design, indeed, but also 

 something still higher; the thought of flight must have 

 preceded the nice adjusting of the structure and functions 

 of the wing to the aerial laws. But there is no thought 

 without a thinker; hence the flight of the Hawk carries my 

 mind up to the Great Creator. And is this not a great 

 lesson taught in a most pleasing manner? Who could not 

 derive pleasure in beholding such majestic soaring, such 

 grand spiral curves of immense sweep, such sublime eleva- 

 tion, till the bird becomes a mere speck against the ether? I 

 cannot think of any bird short of the Eagle whose flight can 

 equal this in elegance and grandeur. It is the very poetry 

 of motion. What can the bird be thinking of at such a 

 time? Is it not enjoying that animated existence, the very 

 consciousness of which, in its normal state, is bliss? Great 

 lesson to unsatisfied human nature. 



Here let us quote a few lines from John Burroughs: " The 

 calmness and dignity of this Hawk, when attacked by the 

 Crows or the King-bird, are well worthy of him. He seldom 

 deigns to notice his noisy and furious antagonists, but 

 deliberately wheels about in that aerial spiral, and mounts 

 and mounts till his pursuers grow dizzy and return to the 

 earth again. It is quite original, this mode of getting rid of 



