A Few Feathered Fiends. 219 



many cripples with their canes and crutches ! A 

 lighting up of the woods or a generally enlarged 

 outlook from any point of view puts the sharp- 

 shinned hawk in excellent humor, if such a cruel 

 creature be susceptible to any of the gentler emo- 

 tions. As I pass along the gully on the first frosty 

 morning, when the ground does not yield to the foot 

 and the notes of the song-sparrow come rolling down 

 the brook as frozen drops of music, I always ex- 

 pect to see a flash of "dark lightning" and to hear, 

 perhaps, the ''whistle!" of wings; for the sharp- 

 shinned hawk is ever prowling here, entering the 

 ravine at its head and leaving it where it opens to 

 the meadows. 



These birds appear to have a deal of method 

 in their apparent madness. Not long ago I no- 

 ticed one perched on a post of a grape-trellis. I 

 watched it for some time and found that it had 

 designs upon some recently hatched chickens which 

 were then closely huddled under their mother's 

 wings. The bird was promptly driven off. The 

 next day it returned at exactly the same time. I 

 placed a steel trap on its perch, but this was recog- 

 nized as such, or at any rate as something to be 

 avoided, and it took its stand near by. It suc- 

 ceeded in getting only one of the young chickens, 

 being twice, in my presence, completely baffled by 

 the courageous and well-planned acts of the old 

 hen. 



These sharp-shinned hawks are wild, of course, 

 like all their species, but they occasionally venture 



