96 Bird -Lore 



This Hawk hunts forest, orchard, licld and meadow. In wooded regions it 

 is very destructive to young pouhry. Being small and inconspicuous, it can glide 

 (juietly into a tree near the poultry-yard, and, watching its chance, dash down 

 diagonally at breathless speed, seize a chicken, and get away before the startled 

 mother hen can come to the rescue. I have even seen the villain sitting impudently 

 upon the gate-post of a chicken-yard, awaiting its chance; but more often it comes 

 low over the ground, just clearing the fence-tops, and is gone with its prey in a 

 moment. A single pair of these Hawks has been known to get twent}- or thirty 

 chickens before the owner realized the cause of his loss. Mr. Ora W. Knight 

 writes that a pair of these birds took ten or twelve chickens daily from a farm- 

 yard for some time before they were shot. Like others of its genus, the Sharp- 

 shin moves ordinarily at a moderate height, alternately sailing and flapping, 

 and always on the lookout for game. As it crosses a river and sails over the 

 meadow, an officious Blackbird rises from its nest in a tussock of reeds, and 

 advances to the attack. The unhappy bird soon realizes its mistake, and, 

 turning, makes for the shelter for the wood, but the Hawk rows the air 

 rapidly with its wings, gaining on the poor Blackbird each second. It 

 follows its quarry through wood and thicket, matching every twist and turn; 

 swift, inexorable and relentless as fate. It can overtake and slay a Bob- 

 White in full flight. It sweeps quietly along a wood path and rises to a dead 

 branch, where it stands almost motionless, scanning all the ground and every 

 tree and thicket, but the little Warblers of the wood have been warned of 

 its approach and, crouching in terror, they will not leave their hiding-places. 

 Impatiently the Hawk leaps forward on the air and soars off to take some heedless 

 songster unawares. The individual Sharp-shins that spend the winter in the 

 North are the hardiest of their species, and their boldness at this season is unsur- 

 ])assed. More than once this Hawk has dashed into or through a window in 

 winter to strike down a caged Canary. On a cold and snowy day in January 

 one bore down a Bluejay within a few feet of my dog. Doctor Hatch records that 

 while he was riding across the prairies of Minnesota in winter during a furious 

 wind, with the mercur}- 46° below zero, one of these Hawks passed with incon- 

 ceivable velocity, close to the ground and seized and bore off a Snow Bunting 

 directly in his ]:)ath. Sometimes, in such instances, the victim appears to be 

 paralyzed with fright. One winter, one of these Hawks swept into our yard, 

 darted into a flock of Juncoes feeding there and seized one that remained crouched 

 on the ground and seemed unable to move until the Hawk struck, while its com- 

 panions made their escape to the thicket. 



Some writers have given the impression that it is ini])()ssil)lc for any l)ird to 

 avoid the sudden and swift attack of this Hawk. Nevertheless it sometimes 

 misses, and loses its prey. A Phccbe, sitting on a low branch near the barn cellar, 

 which contained its nest, dove from the limb, escaped the Hawk's talons, turned 

 the corner of the barn and entered the cellar so quickly that the confused Hawk 

 flew away disappointed. A flock of Least Sandpipers or 'Peeps' scattered so 



