170 THE BIRDS ABOUT Us. 



scribed. Where do so many hawks come from ? is the 

 question usually asked when they wheel through the 

 air hundreds at a time, and for hour after hour. 



The Broad-winged Hawk is not as well known a 

 bird as the red-tail. It is only a winter visitor in 

 New Jersey, I think, but Dr. Warren says it is a resi- 

 dent in Pennsylvania. I have noticed it in November 

 and later, but it practically disappears in early spring, 

 at least from the tide-water portion of the Delaware 

 River Valley. 



Dr. Warren says, 



" When in quest of food its flight is in circles. At times, when 

 circling like the Sparrow-hawk, it will stand for an instant beating 

 the air and then descend with great velocity upon its prey, which it 

 secures, not in its descent, but as it is on the rise." 



In midwinter, when the meadows are firmly frozen, 

 I have often seen these hawks walking over the 

 flats at low tide, but could not determine what par- 

 ticular kind of food, if any, they were in search of. 

 When disturbed they rose leisurely and perched on 

 a dead tree or an exposed limb of a living tree, and 

 both when leaving the ground and when alighting 

 they utter a rather prolonged, mellow whistle that is 

 pleasing, and very different from the cat-like scream 

 of the red-tailed hawk. 



The Red-shouldered Hawk is more generally 

 known as the Winter Falcon ; but it has not been my 

 experience that the people living in the country were 

 given to discriminating between these large hawks, 

 calling them by the same name and attributing the 

 same objectionable habits to them all, and no amount 

 of argumentation will ever avail; while the birds 



