THE HEN-HAWK 1 



AUGUST is the month of the high-sailing hawks. 

 The hen-hawk is the most noticeable. He likes 

 the haze and calm of these long, warm days. He 

 is a bird of leisure, and seems always at his ease. 

 How beautiful and majestic are his movements ! 

 So self -poised and easy, such an entire absence 

 of haste, such a magnificent amplitude of circles 

 and spirals, such a haughty, imperial grace, and, 

 occasionally, such daring aerial evolutions ! 



With slow, leisurely movement, rarely vibrat- 

 ing his pinions, he mounts and mounts in an as- 

 cending spiral till he appears a mere speck against 

 the summer sky ; then, if the mood seizes him, 

 with wings half closed, like a bent bow, he will 

 cleave the air almost perpendicularly, as if intent 

 on dashing himself to pieces against the earth ; 

 but on nearing the ground he suddenly mounts 

 again on broad, expanded wing, as if rebounding 

 upon the air, and sails leisurely away. It is the 

 sublimest feat of the season. One holds his breath 

 till he sees him rise again. 



If inclined to a more gradual and less precipi- 



1 The red-idled and red-shouldered hawks are both called 

 hen-hawks. 



