HAWK LIFE 



ON acquaintance with that rapacious bird of regal ele- 

 gance, the red-shouldered hawk, one of the most 

 common as weU as most representative of his kind, 

 or with his brother, the red-tailed, equally elegant and even 

 more widely distributed, the story of the transformation of 

 Tereus is easily credited. On some daring squirrel whisking 

 through the trees, or some heedless song-bird stirring the 

 leaves as he alights for a moment upon a branch above the 

 bough where the hawk sits cruelly alert, what anger and 

 hatred he shows! 



His enmity, which in the long-ago was directed only 

 toward the fleeting, flitting, light-winged swallow, who, in 

 her fear, dared not pause in her flight even when tortured 

 by himger, and the timorous nightingale hiding in the shel- 

 tering wood, strengthened by long continuance, now em- 

 braces all living creatures too small or weak to resist him. 

 The fierce, demoniacal cries which he occasionally allows to 

 escape him as he swings across the fruitful meadow marshes 

 in quest of prey might well come from one bereft and crazed, 

 by grief, on vengeance bent. 



There are a number of hawks common to America, some 

 of local and others of general distribution, the largest, the 

 osprey, or fish hawk, having the proud distinction of being 

 purveyor to the eagle. The next in size, and the most beau- 



12a 



