186 



the form of offal, for in severe weather when the ground 

 is coverod with snow and when food is scarce, the Red- 

 shouldered Hawk will devour dead chickens which have been 

 thrown out from the yard, as well as other refuse found on 

 the cumpost heaps or in the vicinity of slaughter houses. 

 At such times the writer has often captured specimens of this 

 hawk, as well as of crows, blue jays, red and flying squirrels, 

 in steel traps set near a piece of chicken, rabbit or beef 

 fastened in a tree " 



EATS FROGS AND INSKCTS. 



Xuttall rtmarks that this hawk lives principally on 

 frogs, and probably insects and crawfish in the wintei-. 

 Gentry tells ss that the food of the young consists uf 

 fragments of quadrupeds, besides an immense nuuiber 

 of young grasshoppers and beetles. In my examina- 

 tions of fifty-seven of these hawks which have been 

 captured in I'ennsylvania, forty-three showed field-- 

 mice, some few other small quadrupeds, grasshoppers 

 and insects, mostly beetles; nine revealed frogs and in- 

 sects; two, small birds, remains of small mammals and 

 a few beetles; two, snakes and portions of frogs. The 

 gizzard of one bird contained a few hairs of a field- 

 mouse and some long black hair which ay)peared very 

 much like that of a skunk. The bird on dissection 

 gav<^ a very decided odor of skunk. In two of these 

 hawks, shot in Florida. I found in one portions of a 

 small catfish, and in the other remains of a small 

 mammal and some few coleopterous insects (beetles). 



