CLASS AVES : ORDER RAPTORES. 



135 



Fig. 227. 



Polybdrus tharus, Caracara Eagle. 



that they seem to disappear. It will often imitate the 



cry of a young bird, to 



call the old within its 



grasp. 



The Goshawk, or Blue 



Hen Hawk flies low, until 



just over its prey, when it 



stretches down its power- 

 ful talons and catches it 



up, with hardly a devia- 

 tion from a horizontal 



course.* 



The Caracara Eagle of 



tropical America relishes 



dead and living animals equally, and carries off its prey with 



either beak or claw. 



The Swallow-tailed Haivlc 

 feeds upon reptiles and in- 

 sects,! k^ never upon birds 

 or quadrupeds. 



The White-headed Eagle 

 is the chosen symbol of our 

 country. J It rises in the 

 air by a series of spiral 

 curves, and with an almost 

 imperceptible motion of its 

 wings, until it is a mere 

 speck in the sky. Thence it 



descends with lightning-like velocity. Its swoop is in a 



* A Goshawk was once observed to dart with the swiftness of an arrow upon a 

 flock of blackbirds crossing a river, and, giving five successively the death-squeeze, 

 to return and pick them up one by one and bear them to the shore to be eaten 

 at leisure. 



t Fond of wasps, it may sometimes be seen holding a nest in one claw and 

 picking out the grubs with its bill. It has been known to pursue a swarm of bees, 

 catching them with its claws. 



* Equally indifferent to the extremes of heat and cold, as well as to a maritime or 

 an inland life ; now honestly pursuing an independent vocation, and anon acting the 

 part of a freebooter and robbing the Fish-hawk of its well-earned food, it is not an 

 altogether unsuitable emblem of the nation. 



Nauderusfnrcdtw, 

 Swallow-tailed Hawk. T l s . 



