Hawks and Eagles, 



Order, Raptores^ 

 Family, Falconidae. 



Family Characteristics: Large, ferocious birds with curved talons 

 and beak for grasping and tearing their prey. They feed upon 

 gophers, field mice, birds, snakes, lizards, frogs and grasshoppers 

 with an occasional meal of domestic fowl, that delicacy being a 

 favorite meal only of Cooper's hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk and 

 the goshawk. 



360. SPARROW HAWK. Falco sparverius. The size of a robin. 

 A common prairie hawk. Cheeks with black stripes. Barred brown 

 above. Top of head blue. Cries "killy, killy." 



331. MARSH HARRIER. Circus hudsonius. Twenty inches long. 

 A ruff about the face like an owl's. Brownish gray streaked with 

 white above, with white patch on lower back. Bristles at base of 

 bill. Under parts white specked with brown. Flies low and slowly 

 over marshes. A very valuable hawk and the farmer's friend. 



339. RED SHOULDERED HAWK. Buteo lineatus. Eighteen 

 inches long. Dull red breast and shoulders lightly barred. Darker 

 above. Black tail, barred with white. 



337b. RED-TAILED HAWK. Buteo borealis calurus. Twenty 

 inches long. Dull red tail, banded near the end with black or brown 

 and white. Brown above, dull white or buff below; varies greatly in 

 plumage. 



333. COOPER'S HAWK. Acdpiter Cooperii. Sixteen inches 

 long. Our common "chicken hawk." White below spotted with 

 brown. Black on top of head. Back bluish gray. Tail with three 

 or four black bands and rounded at the end. Tip white. Should be 

 shot if any hawks deserve shooting. 



334. AMERICAN GOSHAWK. Acdpiter atricapillus. Twenty two 

 inches long. Whitish below with irregular gray markings. Bluish- 

 drab above. Black on head. Tail banded below. A first class villain. 



332. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. Acdpiter velox. An inch longer 

 than the robin. Dull bluish brown above. White below with brown 



