HAWKS. 59 



the ermine of winter stained with the blood of 

 a rabbit or the bright plumes of a jay where 

 this marauder has had his meal. 



The Red -tailed and Red -shouldered Buzzards 

 are the Hen Hawks of wSummer. They nest 

 with us, building their eyries in the summits of 

 lofty trees, and occupying the same nest for a 

 succession of years. It is the Red -tailed Buz- 

 zard that performs those wonderful aerial feats of 

 wheeling round in great circles on motionless 

 wings, steady as the revolution of a planet, but 

 ascending with each revolve, till at length he is 

 lost in the depth of the summer sky. 



The Golden Eagle and the Bald Eagle visit 

 us sometimes, and the Osprey pursues his sum- 

 mer fishing along our well - stored coasts. 



The Peregrine Falcon ( Falco peregrinus) is the 

 most powerful and beautiful of our resident hawks, 

 noted alike in Europe and America. It builds 

 its eyrie in the lonely forest summits, and makes 

 its forays along the wild rocky coasts where fleets 

 of ducks and guillemots swarm the wave. Here 

 we may see him rush, like a plumed bolt, from 

 the cliffs, sweep up his quarry from the gleam- 

 ing wave and bear it off to his home on the 



