96 THE RED-TAILED HAWK. 



that the perfection of nature's variety needs a cruel phase, 

 just as the various shades of light and of color need dark- 

 ness for their perfection. 



The Red- tailed Hawk is nearly two feet in length; the 

 color above is a rich dark-brown, the wings and upper tail- 

 coverts marked and barred with dusky and white; the tail is 

 generally bright chestnut-red, sometimes margined with 

 white, always sub-margined with black reddish-gray be- 

 neath; the under parts generally white, with a zone of 

 brown markings across the breast. The cere, legs and feet 

 are bright-yellow. This may be regarded as the ordinary 

 marking of the mature bird. It varies greatly, however, 

 with age. The male is several inches shorter than the 

 female. 



In Western New York, the Red-tailed Hawk lays its eggs 

 in March or April. The eggs, three in number, of a nest 

 taken the 27th of March, are now before me. One of my 

 parishioners discovered it in a large beech tree, only a few 

 rods from his sugar-camp, where he was busy every day 

 gathering and boiling sap, the birds not seeming in the least 

 disturbed by the business. The nest, equal in bulk to a 

 bushel-basket, composed of sticks rudely piled, lined with 

 fine strips of the inner bark of ash rails in a slashing near 

 by, was in the fork of a large limb, about fifteen feet from 

 the trunk, and about a hundred and twenty feet from the 

 ground. A truly perilous undertaking was this ascent, and 

 yet a young friend kindly volunteered his services, saying, 

 with a very suggestive look: " If I fall and break my bones, 

 you must pay the doctor's bill; if I kill myself, you must 

 pay my funeral expenses." The eggs, about 2.25 long by 

 rather less than 1.90 broad, are roundish, one end a little 

 smaller than the other, greenish-white, two dimly scratched 

 and spotted with a purplish-brown, while all are more or 



