Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



parent, a fearless hunter, and of some small, if disproportionate, 

 value to the farmer in occasionally eating field mice and insects ? 

 Whitewashing is useless in the case of a bird known to 

 be the most destructive creature on wings. No more daring 

 marauder prowls above the poultry yards than the goshawk 

 that drops like a thunderbolt from a clear sky at the farmer's 

 very feet and carries off his chickens before his eyes. Grouse, 

 Bob Whites, ducks, and rabbits: in fact, all the sportsmen's pets 

 and innumerable songbirds, are hunted down with a dash and 

 spirit worthy of a better motive. Bloodthirsty, delighting in 

 killing what it often cannot eat, marvellously keen sighted, a 

 powerful, swift flyer, aggressive, and constantly on the alert, it 

 is small wonder all lesser birds become panic-stricken when this 

 murderer sails within striking distance. Without a quiver of -its 

 wings it will sail and sail, apparently with the most innocent 

 intent. Again, with strong wing beats, it will rush through 

 the air and overtake a duck that flies at the rate of a hundred 

 miles an hour, seize it by the throat, sever its windpipe and 

 fly off with its burden. One very rarely sees the goshawk 

 perching and waiting for prey to come to it. When it does so, 

 it holds itself erect, elegant and spirited as ever. After tearing 

 the legs off a ruffed grouse, and plucking every feather, this 

 villain has been known to prepare another and another until 

 five were ready for an orgie, which consisted of only fragments 

 of each, torn with its savage beak. Mr. H. D. Minot tells of 

 watching a goshawk press into a company of pine grosbeaks 

 and seize one in each foot. Happily the agony is short, for a 

 hawk's talons penetrate the vitals. 



Although a northern ranger, the goshawk nests early in 

 April or early May and placing a quantity of twigs and grasses 

 close to the trunk of a tree, anywhere from fifteen to seventy 

 feet from the ground, both mates take turns in attending to the 

 nursery duties after from two to four pale bluish green eggs 

 (that fade to dull white) have been laid. Now the hawks are 

 more audacious and vicious than ever, as their piercing cries 

 indicate, and it is an irrepressible collector who dares rob them. 



316 



