THE HAWK AND EAGLE FAMILY 189 
birds do take our poultry and game birds, some 
good is done. For they naturally catch the weak 
ones who are not able to get out of their way. 
And it is better for the whole race of these birds 
that the weak ones should not live. It leaves 
the rest stronger, and better able to make their 
way in the world. 
This family is found all over the world. It 
includes birds of all sizes, from one as small as a 
sparrow to one who spreads his wings ten feet. 
In our country we have neither the smallest nor 
the largest. Of those you are likely to see, the 
least is the American Sparrow Hawk, who is not 
much larger than a robin, and the greatest is the 
Bald Eagle, who is sometimes a yard from the 
tip of his beak to the end of his tail. 
Hawks have wonderful eyes like a telescope 
and microscope in one, as I have told you in 
“ The First Book of Birds.” In eating without 
knife and fork, they often swallow food whole 
and throw up castings like the owls. 
In catching their prey these birds use their 
feet instead of their beaks. Even those who 
hunt grasshoppers and crickets seize them in 
their claws. Their feet are quite as useful as 
hands. In them they carry material for the nest 
as well as food for the little ones. The claws 
are powerful weapons of war, too. A hawk 
