AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY 



267 



NEST OF RED-TAIL. 



Photo by C. A. Smith. 



creating great havoc among others of the feathered tribe, both wild and 

 domestic. He is also capable of being of immense value to all who are 

 interested in tilling the soil, and the trend of investigations have es- 

 tablished the fact that he is to be considered as a valuable bird. 

 Doubtless many of these hawks will from choice prefer a dinner of 

 poultry, but then who among us humans does not like the same diet; 

 but even if I were a poultry raiser, I doubt that I would declare war 

 on everything that bore resemblance to a hawk because one of them 

 now and then carried off a chicken. As for the chicken I doubt if he 

 has any preference between being guillotined with an ax and strangled 

 in a hawk's talons. 



The Red-tails' piercing, but pleasant whistle may be frequently heard 

 as they soar at astonishing heights. Without a visible tremor to their 

 wings they will describe circle after circle, each above the other till the 

 aching eyes of the watcher can no longer make out their form in the 

 heights above. Surely such sights as this are worth the occasional 

 loss of a chicken. At least half of the food of the Red-tails consists of 

 the destructive meadow mice. Other elements that enter into their 

 diet are small animals, reptiles, frogs, insects, etc., and less than ten 

 per cent, of their food is made up of poultry or game birds. In fact it 



