192 BIRDS 



Sometimes they rise out of sight. Kee you, kee you, 

 they scream as they sail. Does the teasing blue jay imi- 

 tate the call for the fim of frightening Uttle birds.'' 



But the red-shouldered hawk is not on pleasure bent 

 much of the time. Perching is its specialty, and on an out- 

 stretched limb, or other point of vantage, it sits erect and 

 dignified, its far-seeing eyes alone in motion trying to 

 sight its quarry — a mouse creeping through the meadow, a 

 mole leaving its timnel, a chipmunk running along a stone 

 wall, a frog leaping into the swamp, a gopher or yoimg rab- 

 bit frisking around the edges of the wood — ^when, spying 

 one, "like a thunderbolt it falls." 



The Red-tailed Hawk 



This larger relative of the red-shouldered hawk, more 

 common in the East, shares with it the hatred of all but the 

 most enlightened farmers. Before condemning either of 

 these usefxil allies, every one should read the report of Dr. 

 Fisher, published by the Government, and to be had for 

 the asking. This expert judge tells of a pair of red-tailed 

 hawks that reared their young for two successive seasons 

 in a birch tree in some swampy woods, about fifty rods 

 from a poultry farm, where they might have helped them- 

 selves to eight hundred chickens and half as many ducks; 

 yet they were never known to touch one. Occasionally, in 

 winter especially, when other food is scarce, a red-tail will 

 steal a chicken — ^probably a maimed or sickly one that 

 cannot get out of the way — or drop on a bob-white; but 

 ninety per cent, of its food consists of injurious mammals 

 and insects. 



Both of these slandered "hen hawks" prefer to live in 



