272 RED-TAILED HAWK 



applied ignorantly to the members of the benefi- 

 cial genus. Doctor Fisher says that the name 

 Hen Hawk is responsible for much of the false 

 opinion regarding the Red-tail, and states that, 

 " while fully 66 per cent, of the Red-tail's food 

 consists of injurious mammals, not more than 

 7 per cent, consists of poultry, and it is probable 

 that a large proportion of the poultry and game 

 captured by it and the other Buzzard Hawks is 

 made up of old, diseased, or otherwise disabled 

 fowls, so preventing their interbreeding with the 

 sound stock and hindering the spread of fatal 

 epidemics." Among other things, the Red-tail 

 eats ground-squirrels, rabbits, mice, and rats. 



This splendid bird is one of our commonest 

 Hawks, and, when circling in the sky, can often 

 be recognized by its fan-shaped reddish tail. 



Though these Hawks are known less familiarly 

 than the small birds, there is always something 

 virile and interesting about them, and it is a never- 

 failing interest to watch them soar, and to specu- 

 late over the unsolved problem as to how they 

 do it. Nuttall notes that they sometimes amuse 

 themselves by ascending to a vast elevation like 

 the aspiring Eagle, and says that this predilection 

 for the cooler regions of the atmosphere is shared 

 by most rapacious birds, apart from any survey 

 for prey. In his delightful way, the old orni- 

 thologist describes one such flight. " On a fine 

 evening, about the middle of January, in South 



