BIRDS OF PREY. 171 



remain with us persecution will go on, and farmers 

 otherwise intelligent will take pride in ornamenting 

 their barns with hawks, owls, and crows indiscrimi- 

 nately slaughtered. The truth may be mighty, but 

 it does not always prevail. Here, in the case of 

 this bird, we have a mouse- and grasshopper-hawk 

 that does not eat one chicken in a year, and yet it is 

 not safe unless out of gunshot. 



Dr. Wheaton says that this hawk visits the barn- 

 yard (that is, takes a chicken now and then), but I am 

 very strongly inclined to doubt it. Possibly there was 

 some other attraction. Dr. Warren defends it, and 

 I know it is a capital mouser, and what more in its 

 favor need be said ? 



It is a common impression that " Feather-boots" 

 and the Black-hawk are quite different birds, and 

 there does appear to be a difference besides the 

 one of color, and that is the true Black-hawk is a 

 more wary bird, acting as if it knew that in the eyes 

 of a taxidermist, if no other, its skin had a special 

 value. These two forms of the one species come to 

 the Middle States quite often as early as November I, 

 and from that time on you can generally find them 

 perched upon hay-stacks, or taking up a position on 

 some lone tree from which there is an unobstructed 

 view of the fields below, and if not disturbed the 

 same bird will stay all winter, provided the supply 

 of mice does not run short. 



They are essentially a harmless bird, and seem to 

 have impressed their real standing in the world upon 

 the minds of many people ; and certainly they are an 

 ornamental feature of the winter landscape. Stand- 



