268 RED-TAILED HAWK. 



bourhood. The male and female are busily engaged in carrying up dried 

 sticks, and other materials, for eight or ten days, during which time their 

 cry is seldom heard. The nest is large, and is fixed in the centre of a 

 triply forked branch. It is of a flattish form, constructed of sticks, and 

 finished with slender twigs and coarse grasses or Spanish moss. The fe- 

 male lays four or five eggs, of a dull white colour, splatched with brown 

 and black, with a very hard, smooth shell. The male assists the female 

 in incubating, but it is seldom that the one brings food to the other while 

 thus employed, 



I have seen one or two of these nests built in a large tree which had 

 been left standing in the middle of a field ; but occurrences of this kind 

 are rare, on account of the great enmity shewn to this species by the 

 farmers. The young are abundantly supplied with food of various kinds, 

 particularly grey squirrels, wliich the parents procure while hunting in 

 pairs, when nothing can save the squirrel from their attacks excepting its 

 retreat into the hole of a tree ; for should the animal be observed ascending 

 the trunk or branch of a tree by either of the Hawks, this one immediately 

 plunges toward it, while the other watches it from the air. The little 

 animal, if placed against the trunk, when it sees the Hawk coming towards 

 it, makes swiftly for the opposite side of the trunk, but is there immediate- 

 ly dived at by the other Hawk, and now the murderous pair chase it so 

 closely, that unless it immediately finds a hole into which to retreat, it is 

 caught in a few minutes, killed, carried to the nest, torn in pieces, and 

 distributed among the young Hawks. Small hares, or, as we usually call 

 them, rabbits, are also frequently caught, and the depredations of the 

 Red-tailed Hawks at this period are astonishing, for they seem to kill every 

 thing, fit for food, that comes in their way. They are great destroyers 

 of tame Pigeons, and woe to the Cock or Hen that strays far from home, 

 for so powerful is this Hawk, that it is able not only to kill them, but to 

 carry them off" in its claws to a considerable distance. 



The continued attachment that exists between Eagles once paired, is 

 not exhibited by these birds, which, after rearing their young, become 

 as shy towards each other as if they had never met. This is carried 

 to such a singular length, that they are seen to chase and rob each 

 other of their prey, on all occasions. I have seen a couple thus engaged, 

 when one of them had just seized a young rabbit or a squirrel, and was 

 on the eve of rising in the air with it, for the purpose of carrying it off to 

 a place of greater security. The one would attack the other with merci- 



