158 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



rels. Ralph J. Donahue (1923) writes: "Before the eggs of the red- 

 tails hatched, the parents fed on rodents — mostly the striped ground 

 squirrels (Spermophile). After the young got out of the shells, 

 the whole bill of fare was young chicken. At different times we 

 found chickens to the number of seven. There were times when 

 we could not go to the nest for a week or two, and it may be there 

 was other food fed to the young during that time." 



Miscellaneous items of food include rattlesnakes, bull snakes and 

 smaller snakes, lizards, turtles, frogs, toads, salamanders, crawfish, 

 grasslioppers, crickets, beetles, grubs, caterpillars, centipedes, spi- 

 ders, earthworms, and maggots. 



Two common hunting methods of the red-tailed hawk are the lofty 

 soaring flight, from which its keen eyes detect its prey far below, 

 and its slow flapping or sailing flight low over the fields and 

 meadows, much after the manner of the marsh hawk or roughleg; a 

 third, and perhaps the commonest, method is watchful waiting on 

 some commanding perch on tree or post from which it can quickly 

 pounce on any moving object that it sees. Much of its hunting must 

 be in the forests, for many woodland mice and squirrels are included 

 in its food. To capture such active animals as red or gray squirrels, 

 it is often necessary for these hawks to hunt in pairs; tliese lively 

 animals can easily avoid the swoops of a single hawk by dodging 

 around a tree; but, if there is a hawk on each side, the squirrel is 

 doomed unless it can scamper into a hole. Col. N. S. Goss (1891) 

 says that these hawks while "sailing often fill their craws with grass- 

 hoppers, that during the after part of the day also enjoy a sail in 

 the air." Mr. Shelley says in his notes that "it is also a great ex- 

 perience to see these large Buteos alight in a newly hayed field to 

 catch grasshoppers and crickets; as they hop along the wings are 

 always maneuvered to give the bird a rising impetus and timed so 

 that the feet no more than touch the ground when the insect is 

 plucked and the bird is clear of the ground on the next bound for 

 the insect ahead. More than anything else, this maneuver resembles 

 the floppings of a hen with its head cut off, only more mathematical, 

 to give a crude description." 



Behavior. — The ordinary flight of the red-tailed hawk is rather 

 slow and heavy, as it travels along in a straight line, with rather 

 slow wing strokes. But its soaring flight high in the air is inspiring, 

 as it mounts gracefully, gathering altitude rapidly, with no apparent 

 effort, with its broad wings and tail widely spread and motionless 

 except for occasional adjustments to changing air currents. Once, 

 as I stood on the brink of a precipice looking down over a broad 

 valle}^ I saw below me a red-tailed hawk floating over the valley 

 and looking downward for game; it was facing a strong wind and 

 was perhaps buoyed up by rising air currents, as it was poised as 



