THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS 33 
The hen-hawk is the most noticeable. He likes 
the haze and calm of these long, warm days. He 
is a bird of leisure, and seems always at his ease. 
How beautiful and majestic are his movements! 
So self-poised and easy, such an entire absence of 
haste, such a magnificent amplitude of circles and 
spirals, such a haughty, imperial grace, and, occa- 
sionally, such daring aerial evolutions! 
With slow, leisurely movement, rarely vibrating 
his pinions, he mounts and mounts in an ascending 
spiral till he appears a mere speck against the sum- 
mer sky; then, if the mood seizes him, with wings 
half-closed, like a bent bow, he will cleave the air 
almost perpendicularly, as if intent on dashing 
himself to pieces against the earth; but on nearing 
the ground he suddenly mounts again on broad, 
expanded wing, as if rebounding upon the air, and 
sails leisurely away. It is the sublimest feat of 
the season. One holds his breath till he sees him 
rise again. 
If inclined to a more gradual and less precipi- 
tous descent, he fixes his eye on some distant point 
in the earth beneath him, and thither bends his 
course. He is still almost meteoric in his speed 
and boldness. You see his path down the heavens, 
straight as a line; if near, you hear the rush of his 
wings; his shadow hurtles across the fields, and in 
an instant you see him quietly perched upon some 
low tree or decayed stub in a swamp or meadow, 
with reminiscences of frogs and mice stirring in his 
maw. 
