A FEW FEATHERED FIENDS. 227 



show winged activity that is as creditable as it is 

 necessary, for a frightened mouse is never a laggard, 

 and can tax a hawk's ingenuity and skill by dodging, 

 if not by a straight-away course. 



The black hawk, or rough-legged falcon as it is 

 called in the books, is strictly a "local" bird. I 

 have known one to take position on a particular tree 

 and apparently never wander any great distance 

 from it, content, so to speak, with the mice that 

 came its way (for these birds seem to feed upon noth- 

 ing else) and letting all others go. As features of the 

 winter landscape they are as valuable, if we want 

 wild life represented, as the sportive snow-birds just 

 outside our window, and are equally harmless. I 

 well remember one of these hawks, of fullest black 

 plumage, it might have sat as the original of Wil- 

 son's illustration, that I saw daily from my west 

 windows for two whole months, and when the sun 

 was setting, "feather-boots's" thoughtful pose, sil- 

 houetted against a crimson background, was a charm- 

 ing sight. At dusk it went the rounds of the 

 meadow ditches a-mousing, I suppose, but was 

 always back at its post in the early morning. More 

 than many others I have seen, it was an owlish bird, 

 but none the less, when it left us shot by some 

 "collector," perhaps we all greatly missed it. 



Though the black hawk may be slow, even when 

 dinner is at stake, this trait cannot be imputed to 

 our common, all-the-year-round, half tame and often 

 playful sparrow-hawk. It is a wicked rascal, to be 

 sure, when employed in killing birds, but it can turn 



