January 



not only pillaging the grain-fields and fruit- 

 trees, but having a relish for insects, all kinds 

 of flesh, shell-fish, and the like, while their most 

 vicious trait is the destruction of the eggs and 

 young of other birds. To estimate the crow 

 rightly, one must let admiration and contempt 

 lie side by side in his mind, without allowing 

 either to neutralize the other. 



The Park is not a favorable place for birds 

 of prey, but it has harbored a hawk for several 

 weeks this winter. The larger and longer-lived 

 birds are correspondingly slow in coming to 

 maturity, and until they reach that stage identi- 

 fication is difficult and often impossible from 

 the plumage. From its rather nondescript 

 coloring, this specimen seemed to be immature. 

 Gliding silently through the trees, like a spirit 

 of evil, it eluded a near approach, and at last 

 disappeared altogether. There is something 

 spectral and malevolent in the demeanor and 

 solitary life of the birds of prey that is of 

 peculiar interest. Standing in no possible rela- 

 tion of human sympathy, they prove attractive 

 in part by the very qualities that are repellent, 

 presenting an aspect of bird-life as strange as it 

 is fascinating. 



One day, in passing some shrubbery, a faint 



39 



