NIGHT AND DAY HUNTERS 193 



low, wet, wooded places with open meadows for hunting 

 grounds near by. 



The female red-tail measures nearly two feet in length- — 

 for "the female of the species" is always larger than the 

 male hawk, just as the squaws in some Indian tribes are 

 larger than the braves. It is said that hawks remain 

 mated for life; so do eagles and owls, for in their family 

 life, at least, the birds of prey are remarkably devoted. 



Cooper's Hawk and the Sharp-shinned Hawk 



Length — Male 15.5 inches; female 19 inches. 



Male, Female, and Young — To be distinguished from the 



sharp-shinned species only by their larger size, darker, 



blackish crowns, and rounded, instead of square, 



tails. 

 Range — ^Temperate North America, nesting throughout 



its United States range; some birds wintering in Mexico 



and the Southern states. 

 Season — Permanent resident except at northern limits of 



range, where it is a summer or transient visitor. 



{See plates, pages 98-99.) 



Here is no ally of the farmer, but his foe, the most bold of 

 all his robbers, a bloodthirsty villain thatlives by plundering 

 poultry yards, and tearing the warm flesh from the breasts 

 of game and song birds, one of the few members of his 

 generally useful tribe that deserves the punishment 

 ignorantly meted out to his innocent relatives. Un- 

 happily, it is perhaps the most common hawk in the greater 

 part of the United States, and therefore does more harm 

 than all the others. It is mentioned as a bird worth know- 



