RAPTORES. 89 



wings and long tail. It flies more like a swallow than a 

 hawk, as it skims over the meadows or sweeps upward and 

 away with graceful, easy strokes. It is hardly common 

 generally over the state, but is found in considerable num- 

 bers in especially favorable places. 



The food of this hawk proves it to be one of the most 

 beneficial of all our predaceous birds. It does sometimes 

 eat poultry and small birds, but the proportion of these to 

 the whole food of mice, snakes, insects, and squirrels is so 

 small that it should not count against him. While their 

 young were still in the nest I have seen the male return from 

 a search over the meadows with a good-sized snake, 

 apparently not yet dead, in his talons, and drop it from a 

 considerable height to the female who would always catch 

 it before it reached the ground. 



The Marsh Hawk is not a common winter resident, even 

 in the southern counties, and breeds but rarely if at all there,. 

 It passes north early in March, reaching the lake shore be- 

 fore the first of April, sometimes as early as the last week in 

 February. It has not been found in Lorain county after the 

 middle of October. 



124. (332.) ACCIPITER VELOX (Wils.). 169.' 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



Synonyms: Accipter fuscus, Falco velox, Falco fuscus, Nisus 



fuscus. 



"Pigeon Hawk." 

 Kirtland, Ohio Geol. Surv., 1838, 161, 178. 



This little hawk is hardly common anywhere in the state, 

 but it is everywhere present all the year. While it prefers 

 the woods, skulking through the smaller growth low down 

 if it has been feeding, it may often be seen flying across the 

 open. In flight it may be known from the Sparrow Hawk 

 by its larger size, long barred tail, lack of reddish in the 

 feathers of the back, and by the fact that it does not hover 

 over the meadows but skulks in the woods. 



It lives principally upon small birds and young poultry 

 and English Sparrows, only occasionally killing mice and 



