132 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



patches; and now it circles again. It is a red-tailed 

 hawk. The tips of its wings are curved upward as it 

 sails. How it scolds at the men beneath ! I see its open 

 bill. It must have a nest there. Hark ! there goes a 

 gun, and down it tumbles from a rod or two above the 

 wood. So I thought, but was mistaken. In the mean- 

 while, I learn that there is a nest there, and the gun- 

 ners killed one this morning, which I examined. They 

 are now getting the young. Above it was brown, but 

 not at all reddish-brown except about head. Above 

 perhaps I should call it brown, and a dirty white be- 

 neath ; wings above thickly barred with darker, and also 

 wings beneath. The tail of twelve reddish feathers, 

 once black-barred near the end. The feet pale-yellow 

 and very stout, with strong, sharp black claws. The 

 head and neck were remarkably stout, and the beak 

 short and curved from the base. Powerful neck and 

 legs. The claws pricked me as I handled it. It measured 

 one yard and three eighths plus from tip to *tip, i. e. 

 four feet and two inches. Some ferruginous on the 

 neck ; ends of wings nearly black. 



May 1, 1855. Went to Garfield's for the hawk of 

 yesterday. It was nailed to the barn in terrorem and 

 as a trophy. He gave it to me with an egg. He called 

 it the female, and probably was right, it was so large. 

 He tried in vain to shoot the male, which I saw circling 

 about just out of gunshot and screaming, while he 

 robbed the nest. He climbed the tree when I was there 

 yesterday afternoon, the tallest white pine or other tree 

 in its neighborhood, over a swamp, and found two 

 young, which he thought not more than a fortnight old, 



