THE TRUE HAWKS 



359 



two species is by the shape of tail which is square in 

 the sharp-shinned and rounded in the Cooper's. 



3. The falcons. These are perhaps the most strik- 

 ing and interesting of all the hawks. Although not of 

 the largest size, they are the most powerful and, with 

 the exception of the sparrow hawk, strike their victims 

 in full flight. The gyrfalcons, of the far north, are the 

 largest, measuring two feet in length ; the duck hawk 

 or peregrine falcon is next, and the pigeon hawk and 

 sparrow hawk are the smallest. It was pre-eminently 

 members of this family of hawks that were used in the 

 days of falconry. The taming and training of hawks 

 for sport was quite common in Europe by the end of 

 the ninth century and in China it was practiced as early 

 as 400 B. C. The name falcon was ordinarily applied 

 to the females, the smaller males being called "tiercels." 



NEST AND EGGS OF THE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 



Hawks lay white eggs that are usually heavily spotted with brown. 

 Considerable variation occurs, however, and some of the eggs may be 

 nearly pure white. 



In the 16th century, falconry had become so universal 

 that everyone who could afford to do so kept a hawk, 

 and the rank of the owner, we are told, was indicated by 

 the species which he kept. Thus, a king kept a gyrfal- 

 con, a prince the falcon gentle, an earl, the peregrine 

 falcon, a lady, the merlin, a young squire, the hobby. A 

 yeoman carried a goshawk, a priest, a sparrow hawk, 

 and a knave or a servant, a kestrel. 



The gyrfalcons are northern in their distribution and 

 must have been brought down from the Scandinavian 

 mountains to England or the Continent. The European 

 species is lighter and bluer than the American. The 

 peregrine is almost identical with our duck hawk, and 



the merlin with our pigeon hawk. The hobby has 

 relatively longer wings than the other falcons and has 

 no representatives in North America. The European 

 goshawk has a more distinctly barred breast and the 

 European sparrow hawk corresponds to our sharp- 

 shinned hawk, while the kestrel is very similar to the 

 North American sparrow hawk. 



Falcons nest on cliffs or in trees but seldom build 



NEST AND YOUNG OF THE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 



Young hawks are covered with thick whitish down and look a good deal 

 like little chickens. They lack the fierce natures of their parents until 

 they are half grown when they make up for it. 



nests of their own except just enough to keep the eggs 

 from rolling. The eggs are laid either on the bare 

 ground, in cavities of trees, or in the deserted nests of 

 crows or other hawks, and are usually so heavily spotted 

 as to appear uniformly brownish. 



4. The long-winged hawks. The hawks having 

 relatively the longest and narrowest wings are the kites, 

 the marsh hawks, and the fish hawks, the last belonging 

 to a separate family, Pandionidae, having very different 

 habits. In fact about the only thing in common between 

 the three is that they all have the power of long sus- 

 tained flight and have developed the sailing type of wing. 



The kites are the lightest and most graceful of all 

 the hawks, being almost swallowlike in their flight. Par- 

 ticularly is this true of the swallow-tailed kite of south- 

 ern United States and tropical America, a strikingly 

 marked white and black bird, nearly two feet in length, 

 whose swallow-like appearance is augmented by its 

 deeply forked tail. The most beautiful and graceful 

 sight that was ever my good fortune to behold was a 

 troop of these birds skimming a tropical river like a 

 band of swallows, darting after one another in playful 



