BIRDS OF PREY 



139 



on the wing, they have a steadiness of flight unlike the 

 buUet-liice dash of some of the hawks, and more closely 

 resembling the flight of the gulls. 

 Their call is a high-keyed whistle, 

 which falls three tones in a plaintive 

 minor key. Besides this, they utter a 

 sharp, short squeak when darting down 

 to seize their prey. Aside from the fact 

 of his beauty and grace, the food of 

 the White-tail is such as to 

 render him beneficial to farmers, 

 and he should be protected by 

 law fully as much as the game 

 and song birds. Lizards, frogs, 

 snakes, grasshoppers, and 

 beetles are his bill of fare, and 

 these he consumes in great num- 

 bers. Small birds do not fear 

 him as they do the bird-eating 

 species, and this alone is proof that he does not molest 

 them. 



328. White-tailed Kite. 

 '* Preying upon tJie field mice.^' 



331. MARSH HAWK. — Circus hudsonius. 



Family : The Falcons, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



Length: 19.50-24.00. 



Ackdt Male : Slate-color streaked with, white ; under parts and rump 



pure white ; breast and sides lightly speckled with reddish brown ; 



tail with alternate bands of brown and black, six or seven in number ; 



tips of wings black. 

 Adult Feinale, and Young : Rusty, more or less streaked with black. 

 Downy Young : Rusty buff aboye, more or less washed with gray, and 



merging to whitish on lower parts. 



