222 The “ Hen Hawk ” 
and having good reasons for believing that some 
young had been reared there in the spring, this bounti- 
ful supply of bait suggested to me an idea. I had 
seen, but a few days before, a whole family of red- 
tails about a woodchuck that had been shot and left 
by its burrow. It is seldom that the old hawks feed 
upon carrion, but many times they will come and sit 
close by if there are convenient perches for them. 
The young may be tempted to eat of it, for they are 
not yet skilled in hunting and cannot catch their 
prey so readily as can the older and more experienced 
hawks. It is the young that sometimes come to the 
poultry yard, for they can catch a chicken more easily 
than they can catch a mouse. 
I inquired of the boy if he would be busy for the 
next few days, and being answered in the negative, I 
employed him to do a little bird watching for me. 
Near the stump where he was setting the traps 
lay a small tree, one end of which we placed upon 
the stump, while the other rested upon the ground. 
Just in the rear was the swamp where the hawks 
had been seen. The duty of the boy was to rise 
early in the morning and, from a secluded spot, 
watch the tree that we had placed upon the stump. 
The first morning he saw nothing, but the second 
he saw two of the birds perched upon the tree, with 
