THE BROAD-WINGED HAWK. 



{Buteo laiissunus.) 



And up through the rifled tree-tops 



That signaled the wayward breeze 

 I saw the hulk of the hawk becalmed 



Far out on the azure seas. 



— James Whitcomb Riley, "A Vision of Summer." 



The Broad-winged Hawk has a wide 

 range, including the whole of North 

 America, east of the great plains and ex- 

 tending from New Brunswick and the 

 Saskatchewan region on the north to 

 Northern South America on the south. 

 It nests throughout its range within the 

 borders of the United States. 



Its confidence in man is not surpassed 

 by that of any other hawk. Dr. Fisher 

 says that ''of all our hawks this species 

 seems to be the most unsuspicious, often 

 allowing a person to approach within a 

 few yards of it, and when startled flies 

 but a short distance before it alights 

 again." As a rule it is a very quiet bird, 

 but during the nesting period it is fully as 

 noisy and demonstrative as are many 

 of the other hawks. If disturbed while 

 on its nest its shrill call notes will soon 

 attract its mate, when both will continue 

 noisily complaining till the intruder re- 

 treats. Though solicitous for their eggs 

 or young, they will never attack a per- 

 son. It is said that ''for days after they 

 have been robbed these birds will utter 

 their complaints when anyone approaches 

 their homes." They are good parents, 

 both sexes assisting in the care of the 

 eggs and young. 



Not infrequently this Hawk will sit 

 for hours on the dead top of a tall tree 

 at the edge of a forest, and with its body 

 erect and motionless will often seem al- 

 most a part of the tree. Its food is usu- 

 ally procured on the ground, and it is 

 near the ground or among the denser 

 growths of the forest, where it may find 

 insect larvae, that it is more often seen. 



The Broad-winged Hawk may truth- 

 fully be called a friend of the agricultur- 



ist, for it seldom feeds on bird life of any 

 kind, but rather upon mice and other ro- 

 dents, toads, frogs and insects. 



Dr. Fisher, in his valuable work, "The 

 Hawks and Owls of the United States," 

 says : "The only act of the Broad-winged 

 Hawk which seems injurious to agricul- 

 ture is the killing of toads and small 

 snakes, the former of which are exclu- 

 sively insect eaters, the latter very largely 

 so. In one respect its enormous value 

 ranks above all other birds, and that is 

 in the destruction of immense numbers 

 of injurious larvae of large moths, which 

 most birds are either unable or disin- 

 clined to cope with." In the examination 

 of stomachs of sixty-five of these Hawks 

 Dr. Fisher obtained the following re- 

 sults : Two contained small birds ; fif- 

 teen contained mice and thirteen other 

 mammals ; in eleven the remains of rep- 

 tiles, and in thirteen batrachians were 

 found ; thirty contained the remains of 

 insects, two earthworms, four crawfish 

 and seven were empty. The results were 

 surely in favor of the bird. Well may 

 the farmer listen to the words of Alexan- 

 der Wilson : 



" Kill not thy friend, who thy whole harvest 



shields, 

 And sweeps ten thousand vermin from thy 



fields." 



The poultry yard is safe from the dep- 

 redations of these quiet birds, which, 

 though sluggish and heavy in flight, can 

 move with great rapidity and soar high 

 in the air if they so desire. Even the 

 small birds in the woods seem to consider 

 them to be harmless, for they give them 

 but little attention. When this bird does 



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