HAWK LURES. 625 



so it was cut off close to his beak, whereupon he swallowed what 

 remained in his mouth and looked relieved. His meal proved too 

 much for him, however, and he only lived a few days after it. 



The different species of hawks vary greatly as regards the readi- 

 ness with which they may be called most of them, in fact, ab- 

 solutely refusing to be lured in any way. As might be expected 

 from its habits, the marsh hawk is the most susceptible, and in still 

 weather may be brought from a distance of one hundred yards or 

 more. At the first squeak he wheels about in the air and comes 

 directly toward you with most unexpected impetuosity and swift- 

 ness. His discomposure on discovering the fraud is usually most 

 amusing, as he stops short in mid air, with wings and legs asprawl, 

 and turning his back on you, hurries off in feverish haste. 



The red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks are also easily at- 

 tracted in this manner, but the rough-legged hawks, although they 

 live almost entirely on mice, are not so readily deceived, though 

 this is undoubtedly owing more to their extreme wariness than to 

 any dullness of hearing on their part. 



None of the falcons or short-winged hawks pay the slightest 

 attention to the most lifelike squeaking, so that evidently when 

 they do deign to attack such ignoble quarry as a field mouse they 

 depend more on their eyesight than on the sense of hearing. One 

 still October day the red-tailed hawks were soaring and scream- 

 ing above the pines beneath which I was hidden; by mimicking 

 their cries I enticed one of them nearer and nearer, till at last he 

 closed his wings and alighted bolt upright on a dead stump not 

 fifty feet away. Changing my tactics, I endeavored to convince 

 the hawk that a family quarrel was in progress among the mice in 

 the thick clump of pines below him, and was rewarded by seeing 

 him turn first one keen eye and then the other on my place of con- 

 cealment; then he leaned forward and crouched catlike on his 

 perch, half opening his broad wings and shifting his feet about in 

 his impatience. But he evidently desired more positive evidence 

 than his ears could give him before making the final dash for his 

 breakfast. There was a slender dead branch beside me, and cau- 

 tiously taking this, I shoved it slowly along under the carpet of pine 

 needles out into the opening, as one sometimes amuses a kitten with 

 a pencil beneath the tablecloth. The instant the hawk's eye caught 

 the movement of the pine needles he descended with a whir almost 

 to the point of seizing the stick in his claws; then, catching sight 

 for the first time of the author of his disappointment, he rose flap- 

 ping into the air, shrieking out his anger to the skies. If we had 

 been more evenly matched in weight, I fear I should have suffered 

 the most extreme punishment for my deceit. 



VOL. LV. 44 



