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Handbook of Nature-Study 



Red-tailed hawk on nest. 

 Photo by R. W. Hegner. 



THE HEN HAWKS 

 Teacher's Story 



"Above the tumult of the canon lifted, tlie gray hawk breathless hung. 

 Or on the hill a winged shadoiv drifted where furze and ihornbush clung." 



— Bret Harte. 



It is the teacher's duty and privilege to try to revolutionize some 

 popular misconceptions about birds, and two birds, in great need in this 

 respect, are the so-called hen hawks. They are most unjustly treated, 

 largely because most farmers consider that a "hawk is a hawk," and should 

 always be shot to save the poultry, although there is as much difference 

 in the habits of hawks as there is in those of men. The so-called hen 

 hawks are the red-shouldered and the red-tailed species, the latter being 

 somewhat the larger and rarer of the two; both are very large birds; the 

 red-shouldered has cinnamon brown epaulets, the tail blackish, crossed 

 by five or six narrow white bars, and the wing feathers are also barred. 

 The red-tailed species has dark brown wings, the feathers not barred, and 

 is distinguished by its tail which is brilliant cinnamon color with a black 

 bar across it near the end; it is silvery white beneath. When the hawk 

 is soaring, its tail shows reddish as it wheels in the air. Both birds are 

 brown above and whitish below, streaked with brown. 



The flight of these hawks is alike and is very beautiful ; it consists of 

 soaring on outstretched wings in wide circles high in the air, and is the 

 ideal of graceful aerial motion. In rising, the bird faces the wind and 

 drops a little in the circle as its back turns to the leeward, and thus it 

 climbs an invisible winding stair until it is a mere speck in the sky. This 

 wonderful flight, on motionless wings, is what has driven to despair our 

 inventors of airships who have not been able to fathom the mystery of it 

 from a practical standpoint. When the bird wishes to drop, it lifts and 



