The Red-tailed Hawk 61 



ous kinds. In a prairie and hilly country almost its entire 

 food is squirrels, gophers, meadow-mice, and rabbits. 



It has been shown by careful examinations of hun- 

 dreds of stomachs of these hawks, carried on under the 

 direction of the Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton, that poultry and game birds do not make up more 

 than ten per cent of the food of this hawk. All the other 

 helpful animals preyed upon, including snakes, will not 

 increase the proportion to fifteen per cent, so there is a 

 balance of eighty-five per cent in favor of the red-tail. 

 This is a fact that every gunner should remember, since 

 the hawks destroy so many injurious rodents they should 

 never be shot unless in the act of stealing chickens. 



There is a charm in the life of a wild bird of prey. 

 Like the Indian that once hunted his daily food through 

 forest and over plain, these creatures have every sense de- 

 veloped to a high point for their own protection and exist- 

 ence. They maintain themselves by preying upon birds, 

 fish, and mammals almost as crafty as themselves. 



Off to the west of the hawk's nest, and spreading for 

 two or three miles to the north and south, is a network 

 of low-lying ponds and lakes. Here the red-tails fished 

 and hunted. Skirting one of these lakes, early one morn- 

 ing, we came to the top of a low rise between this and 

 the next pond. A hundred and fifty yards below, and 

 at the edge of the timber, we saw one of the red-tails 

 sitting on a dead stump. We crouched in the bushes and 

 studied him for several minutes with the field-glass. He 

 had not seen us or, at least, he paid no attention to our 

 presence. Suddenly he lifted his wings and set out straight 

 across the lake, but at the further side he seemed to 



