256 Sketches of Some Common Birds. 



the numbers of the permanent residents. Their shrill 

 cries, which can be represented by the syllables "kee-oo," 

 are then heard ringing over the woods as the birds flap 

 from their perches and begin to mount in their skyward 

 spirals. When they careen like a ship caught by the wind, 

 the bright chestnut of the upper side of the tail shows 

 to advantage and serves to distinguish them from their 

 congeners. 



In the late winter or early spring the shocks of corn 

 that have been left standing in the fields are removed to 

 clear the ground for the new crop. If there is a high 

 tree or other suitable perch in the field, one or more of 

 these hawks can often be seen waiting for the uncovering 

 of the mice hidden in the shocks. Regardless of the 

 farmer's proximity, they will frequently sail down and 

 capture a luckless mouse, returning to their perch to await 

 the uncovering of another victim. It is characteristic 

 of the hawks to lose much of their usual wariness when 

 they are in pursuit of their prey, and on such occasions 

 they often unwittingly enter the range of the collector's 

 gun, thus forfeiting their lives for their rapacity. Though 

 they are more or less common in all wooded regions of 

 North America, they are wary in eluding human enemies, 

 usually leaving their perch and soaring high, far beyond 

 gunshot, at the appearance of suspected persons. In the 

 less thickly settled regions of the far west they are said 

 to show less wariness and to evince more of curiosity than 

 of suspicion at the approach of man. 



At all seasons these hawks are harassed by the crows, 

 from whom they escape by mounting in the air in irreg- 

 ular spirals to heights where the ignoble crows become 

 dizzy and decline to follow. They make no other efforts 

 to elude or repel the assaults of their tormentors, though 

 in ordinary altitudes one or more of the crows will fre- 

 quently rise above them and keep striking them. I once 

 watched a single crow attack one of these hawks, and as 

 the hawk arose the crow, which had already gained the 

 upper air, easily kept the advantage by mounting in the 

 same manner, striking the hawk at every turn, I began 

 to admire the courage and persistency of the crow, when 

 his spirit apparently failed him, and abandoning the bat- 



