230 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY 



siderable time. Having missed its prey in the first attempt, 

 it was now so intent on the object beneath it, that my ap- 

 proach was entirely disregarded. In another moment, and 

 with more fatal aim, it darted into the grass, with a rustling 

 noise, and soon arose wilh its victim. Ueing sufficiently 

 near, I shot the Hawk, and secured its prize, wiiich was yet 

 alive. It was a male partridge, and had, with its compa- 

 nions, sought shelter in the asparagus; but with all the well- 

 known ingenuity of these birds, it availed notiimg against 

 the penetrating eye of this Hawk. 



The voice of the Redtailed Hawk is harsh, and may be 

 heard at a considerable distance. Its ungracious and terrifying 

 screams are the signals for its prey to seek shelter from its ta- 

 lons; butindoingthisthcycommonly fall victims to thisartifice 

 of their destroyer. Like the lion howling to affrighten and 

 put in motion the beasts of the forest, that their fears may 

 overcome their instinct, and press them headlong to destruc- 

 tion. So it appears to be a finesse of this Hawk to skim the 

 surface of the grcind, and hover around the favourite haunts 

 of its prey, and by those desolating screams, put in motion 

 such of the animals or feathered tribe which may be near, 

 and which, while seeking more secure shelter, are pounced 

 upon and destroyed by their inveterate enemy. 



The Red-tailed Hawk is designated by the farmers under 

 the titles of the "Chicken Hawk," and "Hen Hawk," 

 and many artifices arc employed to destroy this bird, so in- 

 jurious to the farmer's poultry yard. The use of the gun 

 more frequently fails in their destruction than other means. 

 Sjeated, generally, on some detached tree of the wood, or 

 in the middle of a field, on the decayed extremity of a 

 topmost branch, the sphere of vision to this Hawk is very 

 extensive. Naturally shy, and, perhaps, conscious of its 

 depredations, it avoids man as its common ana only enem}': 

 consequently, it is exceedingly ditTicult to approach, and 

 can seldom be done, except through the agency of the horse. 

 In this case, the disposition of the bird appears totally 

 changed, and by some blind fatality, will suffer a man on 

 horseback to pass immediately under the tree on which it 

 sits, without showing signs of fear; but as it is not always 

 convenient and practicable to employ a horse for this pur- 

 pose, other means are resorted to. A friend of mine, who 

 resides a fevv miles from Philadelphia, has been very suc- 

 cessful in ridding himself of these Hawks, by using steel 

 traps. These he would place in the neighbourhood of those 

 trees usually occupied by the Hawks, and after securing the 

 traps to the earth, he would bate them with a dead fowl, 

 and, sometimes, only the feathers and oflals of fowls, and 

 which seldom failed to answer the purpose. He would only 

 resort to this plan after having discovered a Hawk visit the 

 same tree two or three times successively. 



During protracted cold weather and deep snows, the or- 



dinary supplies of food are no longer to be obla'ne I by 

 Hawks, and, like other shy and vigilant birds, their ferocity 

 and energies become in a measure subdued, by the severi- 

 ties of the winter. The past winter was one of unusual 

 coldness, and these, as well as other birds, suffered much 

 from its inclemencies. I have heard that a Red-tailed Hawk 

 was seen on the public highway, scratching and gleaning a 

 scanty meal, from among the droppings of the horses, and on 

 the approach of a sleigh wilh bells, merely avoided it, by 

 flying on the fence by the road side, not more than twenty 

 feet from the passengers, and resumed its former occupation 

 so soon as the sleigh had passed. 



The young of the Red-tailed Hawk are very noisy when 

 confined to their nests, keeping np an incessant clamor. They 

 are protected and fed by both parents, until they have at- 

 tained an age sufficient to shift for themselves, when not 

 only they are forsaken by the parents, but a complete sepa- 

 ration of each member of the family takes place, and each 

 becomes selfish and shy towards the other, as though there 

 never existed affinity between them. 



The Red-tailed Hawk commences building its nest in Fe- 

 bruary, generally on some tall tree, in an unfrequented 

 wood, which consists of sticks and coarse grass. I do not re- 

 collect of ever having seen but two: one was on the north- 

 ern range of hills which bounds the great valley of Chester 

 county, and the other, in an extensive pine wood, in Jersey. 

 The eggs are commonly four or five in number, of a dirty 

 white and spotted with a dark brown colour; and the fol- 

 lowing description, by Wilson, so perfectly agrees with the 

 specimen from which our drawing is made, that I have in- 

 serted it at length. 



" The Red-tailed Hawk is twenty inches long, and three 

 feet nine inches in extent; bill blue black; cere and sides of 

 the mouth yellow, tinged with green; lores and spot on the 

 under eye-lid wnite, the former marked with fine radiating 

 hairs; eye-brow, or cartilage, a dull eel-skin colour, promi- 

 nent, projecting over the eye; a broad streak of dark brown 

 extends from the sides of the mouth backwards; crown and 

 hind-head dark brown, seamed with white and ferruginous; 

 sides of the neck dull ferruginous, streaked with brown; 

 eye large; iris pale amber; back and shoulders deep brown; 

 wings dusky, barred with blackish; ends of the five first 

 primaries nearly black; scapularies barred broadly with 

 white and brown; sides of the tail-coverts white, barred 

 with ferruginous, middle ones dark, edged with rust; tail 

 rounded, extending two inches beyond the wings, and of a 

 bright red brown, with a single band of black near the end, 

 and tipped with brownish white; on some of the lateral 

 feathers are slight indications of the remains of other nar- 

 row bars; lower parts brownish white; the breast ferrugi- 

 nous, streaked with dark brown; across the belly a band of 



