80 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



great loops swung him northward (much like the 

 connected capital O's we used to have to push 

 across the page of our "writing-books" at school), 

 and sooner or later he would drop from his aerial 

 pathway and swing aloft again with his quarry. 



That same day I saw a third hawk, sitting quietly 

 on top of a large log in a pasture within two 

 hundred feet of the trolley track. The car was 

 moving rapidly, so I had little time for observa- 

 tion, but it seemed to be a red-shouldered hawk, 

 which is a trifle smaller than the red-tailed, but 

 rather closely resembles it, especially in habits of 

 flight. I could see, however, that the noisy pas- 

 sage of the trolley did not disturb this bird in the 

 least. He was facing in the opposite direction, with 

 his head down, as if he were watching the ground. 

 It may be there was some quarry beneath that log 

 which he was waiting for. A cat at a mouse-hole 

 can be no more patient than a hawk. 



It is by no means true that all hawks are seriously 

 destructive of desirable bird and animal life. The 

 so-called "hen-hawk" is a case in point. Because 

 this hawk, and the red-shouldered hawk, also, have 

 soared in their great, beautiful circles high above 

 our clearings since the first settlers came, and be- 

 cause hawks do unquestionably raid poultry-yards 

 and kill pigeons and wild game-birds, the most 

 conspicuous raptores have had the burden of re- 

 proach heaped upon them. Yet actually the red- 

 tailed, or "hen-hawk," does probably as much 

 good as harm to the farmer and the community. 

 In that monumental work The Birds of New York, 

 by Elon Howard Eaton, is a table of stomach con- 



