The Red-Tailed Hawk {Butco boreaiis) 



B}' Lyds Jones 



Length : 20 inches. 



Range : Eastern North America west to the Great Plains, north to latitude 

 60°, south to Mexico. 



Food : Mice, mammals, game birds, insects. 



Among the Birds of Prey, this is one of the largest of the Hawks, and 

 >tands next to the familiar Sparrow Hawk; is easy of identification. Only 

 one of the birds which are commonly called Hawks is larger, and that one, the 

 American Rough-leg, is found in the winter months in small numbers in the North. 

 Furthermore, the Rough-leg is a bird of the twilight, w-hile the Red-tail is most 

 active during bright days. But if you would know the Red-tail certainly you 

 must learn to notice the uniformly colored tail. There may be one dark band 

 near the tip, but the rest of the tail will be some shade of rufous or brown, 

 without bands of any color. One also soon learns to see a certain majestic move- 

 ment in the soaring flight, a more dignified wing stroke, and withal, a certain 

 appearance of strength and power not manifest among the smaller hawks, par- 

 ticularly the smaller Red-shouldered. 



In spite of the fact that this bird sometimes visits the poultry-yard, and 

 may feast daintily upon sparrow or pigeon, I cannot help admiring him. His 

 sagacity is shown in the selection of a nesting site, which is the taller and less 

 easily accessible trees, and in his habit of showing himself as little as possible 

 in the vicinity of his nest, except high above it. To the initiated the whereabouts 

 of that carefully arranged bundle of sticks may be guessed from the manner in 

 which the high-soaring bird behaves. Unless the nest is actually threatened there 

 is no demonstration of hostility, but a dignified, watchful inditiference to an 

 unwarranted meddling with private afl:"airs. But once threaten the nest and the 

 speck in the upper air descends like a bolt out of a clear sky, swerving aside 

 just at the point of contact and sweeping upward again for a renewed attack. 

 Even the fiercest birds will not actually strike the human intruder, much as he 

 may deserve punishment, but the angry scream and the booming air beneath 

 the half -closed wings try the nerves of the bravest, while he is perched in the 

 lofty tree-tops. 



Much abuse has been heaped upon this bird's head, the most of it unwar- 

 ranted. Careful study has proved that chickens are molested only when other 

 food is unobtainable. And when birds have been killed in the act of raiding 

 the poultry-yard they have been young birds for the most part. On the other 

 hand, the harmful animals and msects which this hawk destroys far overbalance 

 the depredations upon poultry. It is no more fair that all hawks .should be 

 killed because one occasionally destroys chickens than it is to kill all cats because 

 one sometimes becomes a chicken killer. 



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