152 LAND BIRDS 
second and a third course in surprisingly few minutes. 
Anyone who cares to watch will probably find that sixty 
gophers to each dozen hawks each day, besides countless 
insects and grasshoppers, is a fair estimate. Small birds 
they do not harm. If any proof of this were needed, the 
song birds themselves furnish it every season by building 
their nests fearlessly in the same tree, and not seldom 
within ten inches of that of the hawk. Arkansas king- 
birds, shrikes, and bullock orioles have all been found, by 
Captain Bendire, rearing their young close to the young 
hawks, and a veritably happy family they are. 
The hawk’s nest is large and slovenly, a mere platform 
of sticks, placed indiscriminately in a low bush or a tall 
tree, and lined with green leaves and corn’ husks. 
Equally indifferent is he as to the location; for he is 
content on a grassy prairie where there are few trees, or 
in the timbered districts. The only requirements for his 
home seem to be food and water, —the last for bathing 
as well as drinking, for, like all birds of prey, Swain- 
sons Hawk is an enthusiastic splasher. Early every 
morning he flies down to his favorite pond or stream, and 
sends a shower of sparkling drops in every direction. 
It is a very wet, bedrageled-looking bird that, a few 
moments later, flies up to a sunny perch to shake him- 
self and preen his feathers. 
His hunting is mostly done on the ground; after his 
young are fledged, you may see them jumping with raised 
wings through the grass in brisk pursuit of crickets and 
grasshoppers. This they learn to do by imitating the par- 
ent, and it is probably their first lesson in pursuing prey. 
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