RED-TAILED HAWK 131 



bark one to two inches long each, a good handful of 

 theni, and on this the eggs had lain. We saw nothing 

 of the hawk. 



RED-TAILED HAWK; HEN-HAWK 



March 26, 1853. Up the Assabet, scared from his 

 perch a stout hawk, — the red-tailed undoubtedly, for 

 I saw very plainly the cow-red when he spread his 

 wings from oj6f his tail (and rump ?). I rowed the boat 

 three times within gunshot before he flew, twice within 

 four fods, while he sat on an oak over the water, — I 

 think because I had two ladies with me, which was as 

 good as bushing the boat. Each time, or twice at least, 

 he made a motion to fly before he started. The ends of 

 his primaries looked very ragged against the sky. This 

 is the hen-hawk of the farmer, the same, probably, 

 which I have scared off from the Cliff so often. It was 

 an interesting eagle-like object, as he sat upright on 

 his perch with his back to us, now and then looking 

 over his shoulder, the broad-backed, flat-headed, curve- 

 beaked bird. 



April 4, 1853. At Conantum End I saw a red-tailed 

 hawk launch himself away from an oak by the pond 

 at my approach, — a heavy flier, flapping even like the 

 great bittern at first, — heavy forward. 



April 30, 1855. I hear from far the scream of a 

 hawk circling over the Holden woods and swamp. This 

 accounts for those two men with guns just entering it. 

 What a dry, shrill, angry scream ! I see the bird with 

 my glass resting upon the topmost plume of a tall white 

 pine. Its back, reflecting the light, looks white in 



