RED-TAILED HAWK. 363 



terrifying screams are the signals for its prey to seek shel- 

 ter from its talons ; but in doing this they commonly fall 

 victims to this artifice of their destroyer. Like the lion 

 howling to affrighten and put in motion the beasts of the 

 forest, that their fears may overcome their instinct, and 

 press them headlong to destruction, so it appears to be a 

 finesse of this Hawk to skim the surface of the ground, and 

 hover around the favorite haunts of its prey, and by those 

 desolating screams, put in motion such of the animals or 

 feathered tribe which may be near, and which, while seek- 

 ing more secure shelter, are pounced upon and destroyed 

 by their inveterate enemy. 



The Red-tailed Hawk is designated by the farmers 

 under the titles of the ' Chicken Hawk,' and 'Hen Hawk,' 

 and many artifices are employed to destroy this bird, so 

 injurious to the farmer's poultry yard. The use of the 

 gun more frequently fails in their destruction than other 

 means. Seated, generally, on some detached tree of the 

 wood, or in the middle of a field, on the decayed extremity 

 of a topmost branch, the sphere of vision to this Hawk is 

 very extensive. Naturally shy, and, perhaps conscious of 

 its depredations, it avoids man as its common and onl}- 

 enemy: consequently, it is exceedingly difficult to approach 

 and can seldom be done, except through the agency of the 

 horse. In this case, the disposition of the bird appears 

 totally changed, and by some blind fatality, will suffer a 

 man on horseback to pass immediately under the tree on 

 which it sits, without showing signs of fear ; but as it is not 

 always convenient and practicable to employ a horse for 

 this purpose, other means are resorted to. A friend of 

 mine, who resides a few miles from Philadelphia, has been 

 very successful in ridding himself of these Hawks, by using 

 steel traps. These he would place in the neighborhood 

 of those trees usually occupied by the Hawks, and after 

 securing the traps to the earth, he would bate them with a 

 dead fowl, and sometimes, only the feathers and offals of 



