26 



GAME, AQUATIC, AND RAPACIOUS BIKDS. 



Moreover, it must be remembered to their credit that part of their 

 food consists of economically injurious fishes, and that in the case of 

 some species a considerable proportion of insects is taken, most of 

 which are directly injurious to the fishing industry. w. L. M. 



COOPER'S HAWK. 



(Accipiter cooperi.) 



Cooper's hawk (fig. 11) may be taken as a type of the group of 

 hawks whose habits are responsible for the condemnation of birds of 

 prey as a whole. This group includes three species: Cooper's hawk, 



the sharp-shinned 

 hawk, and the gos- 

 hawk. They are 

 often spoken of as 

 blue darters, a name 

 which expresses a 

 characteristic dif- 

 ference in their 

 manner of hunting 

 from that of other 

 hawks . They 

 course over the 

 country at great 

 speed and capture 

 their prey by sud- 

 den darts. The 

 blue darters are 

 long-tailed hawks, 

 but they should 

 not be confounded 

 with that other 

 conspicuously long- 

 tailed bird, the 

 marsh hawk. The 

 latter usually flies 

 slowly and may be recognized by the white rump. The red- 

 tailed, red-shouldered, and other large hawks usually watch for 

 their prey from some convenient lookout station or soar slowly 

 over meadow and forest, watching a chance to pounce upon their 

 quarry. These hawks almost always seize their victims on the 

 ground, while hawks of the darter group often take them in full 

 flight. This difference is of course chiefly due to the character of 

 the prey, the darters feeding almost exclusively upon birds, which 

 usually must be caught on the wing, while the other hawks prey upon 



497 



FIG. 11. Cooper's Hawk. 



