THE OOLOGIST. 



21 



former possesses the strong curved beak 

 and indicative talons of a fierce, poAverful 

 flesh eater ; the latter, the beak, leg& and 

 feet of a different bird entirely^those of a 

 bird accustomed to marshes and water 

 courses, where its prey, without question, 

 is of a lower order and of a nature to admit 

 of its being devoured whole. 



Our remarks being based upon the fore- 

 going, how are birds enabled at times to de- 

 vour something entirely contrary in form 

 and nature to its own usual food ? Because 

 they are pressed. "Warblers eat with avid- 

 ity bread or particles of any doughy sub- 

 stance when constrained to do so, but it 

 never has been our lot to observe them touch 

 grain or seeds. When insects are plentiful 

 they Avill eat nothing else. Woodpeckers, 

 while in captivity (excepting perhaps the 

 Flickers) , are true to their characteristics ; 

 they refuse caterpillars, worms or any in- 

 sect that cannot craAvl upon a vertical sur- 

 face, and eventually die. Yet Herons and 

 Cranes in captivity will swallow almost 

 anything from a button to a jackknife, if 

 not vv'ell fed with proper morsels. The Ea- 

 gle is often obliged to submit to the humil- 

 iating fare of beetles, caterpillars and such 

 ignoble prey. A shoemaker living in this 

 city once captured a Crane. He let it run at 

 large in the store-room of his shop, and not 

 having sufficient to eat, the bird was oblig- 

 ed to appropriate the most handy and suit- 

 able objects it could find, and with very 

 little hesitation swallowed awls, pegs and 

 bits of leather. Ultimately the bird died, 

 and a dissection revealed the fact that its 

 stomach was entirely devoid of anything 

 but an awl, a few wooden pegs and a large 

 quantity of plastering, which it had detach- 

 ed from the wall. A cage of Sparrows 

 trapped at Syracuse two or three years 

 since, lived very well on grass ! We are 

 indebted to a correspondent for this infor- 

 mation. Sparrows, though grain-eaters, ■ 

 are also insectivorous, but their eagerness 

 for the latter is much less observable, and : 

 grains a^re always preferred. Thus we see 

 that though the adaptation of certain food ; 

 is marked in different species of birds, they 



ar3 not always confined to it as a sole means 

 of subsistence. 



JlrrteT'tccurL ^trds. 



EXTRACTS 



FROM 



Popular Naturalists. 



Ill 



THE ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. 

 Buteo lagopus,— Gmel. 



HE Rough-legged Hawk seldom goes 

 farther south along our Atlantic coast 

 than the eastern portions of North 

 Carolina, nor have I ever seen it to the Avest 

 of the Alleghanies. It is a sluggish bird, 

 and conliues itself to the meadows and low 

 grounds bordering the rivers and salt- 

 marshes, along our bays and inlets. In 

 such places you may see it perched on a 

 stake, where it remains for hours at a time, 

 unless some wounded bird comes in sight, 

 when it sails after it, and secures it with- 

 out manifesting much swiftness of flight. 

 It feeds principally on moles, mice, and 

 other small quadrupeds, and ncA^er attacks 

 a Duck on the wing, although now and 

 then it pursues a wounded one. When not 

 alarmed, it usually flies low and sedately, 

 and does not exhibit any of the couj-age and 

 vigour so conspicuous in most other Hawks, 

 suffering thousands of birds to pass without 

 pursuing them. The greatest feat I have 

 seen them perform was scrambling at the 

 edge of the water to secure a lethargic frog. 



They alight on trees to roost, but appear 

 so hungry or indolent at all times, that they 

 seldom retire to rest until after dusk. Their 

 large eyes indeed seem to indicate their pos- 

 session of the faculty of seeing at that late 

 hour. I have frequently put up one, that 

 seemed watching for food at the edge of a 

 ditch, long after sunset. Whenever an op- 

 portunity offers, they eat to excess, and, like 



