THE AMERICAN EAGLE 



229 



farther from their thoughts than attacking the 

 children of Man, the destroyer of Ufe. 



The Golden Eagle ^ is in no sense whatever a 

 golden-colored bird. Its plumage is dark brown, 

 with a very slight outside wash of lighter brown. 

 It would be much more appropriate to call it the 

 "brown eagle." In appearance it looks very 

 much like a white-headed eagle in its second 

 year, except that its tarsi are feathered quite 

 down to the toes. By this point it can always 

 be distinguished from its nearest relative. 



This bird has a very bad record as a destroyer 

 of lambs, poultry, game-birds, young deer, ante- 

 lope, rabbits, and other small mammals. It 

 cares very Uttle for fish, and prefers to frequent 

 interior regions, where either domestic animals 

 or wild species of good size are abundant. By 

 preference it is a bird of the mountains, and 

 although found all the way from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, and from Mexico to the Arctic 

 Ocean, it is most abundant in the great mountain- 

 ranges of the West. In the cattle country east 

 of the Rockies, many a Golden Eagle dies igno- 

 miniously from eating poisoned meat that is in- 

 tended for wolves. 



The Hawks of North America above Mexico 

 form a group of about thirty-four species, not 

 counting subspecies, and the conspicuous types 

 are well worth serious attention.^ Some of 

 them are useful to man, and some are so de- 

 structive and generally useless that they de- 

 serve death. It is highly important that hawk 

 enemies should be distinguishable from hawk 

 friends. 



The Red-Tailed Hawk^ is the greatest of 

 all destroyers of noxious four-footed animals. 

 It might well be called the Mammal-Eater, in- 

 stead of being universally miscalled the Hen- 

 Hawk, or Chicken-Hawk. 



The species of the above name inhabits the 

 entire eastern half of the United States, and 

 ranges westward to the Rocky Mountains, where 

 it meets the subspecies known as the Western 



1 A-quil'a chrys-a-e'tos. Size, about the same as 

 the white-headed eagle. 



2 To avoid the possibility of confusion, attention 

 is called to the fact that the sparrow-hawk, pigeon- 

 hawk and duck-hawk, already described, belong to 

 Falco, the genus of the falcons, a group quite dis- 

 tinct from those of the hawks now to be intro- 

 duced. 



' Bu'teo bo^e-al'is. Average length of male, about 

 21 inches; female, 24 inches. 



Red-Tail. By reason of the abundance of this 

 bird, and its undoubted influence for good or 

 evil upon agricultural communities, the De- 

 partment of Agriculture has made a study of it 

 which was particularly thorough. From Ari- 

 zona to Connecticut, and in all seasons of the 

 year, collections were made, until finally 562 

 stomachs had been collected and examined. 



The result was a complete vindication of the 

 moral character of the previously despised and 

 persecuted "Hen-Hawk." Two hundred and 

 seventy-eight specimens contained mice; 131, 

 other mammals ; 54, poultry or game-birds; 51, 

 other birds; 47, insects; 37, amphibians and 

 reptiles; 13, offal; 8, crawfish, and 89 were 

 empty. It was found that poultry and game 

 did not constitute 10 per cent of the food of this 

 Hawk, and that all other beneficial creatures 

 preyed upon, including snakes, did not increase 

 this proportion to 15 per cent. Against this 

 small debit stands a credit of 85 per cent, made 

 up chiefly of destructive rodents. 



" It is not to be denied," says Dr. Fisher, "that 

 a good deal of poultry is destroyed by this Hawk; 

 but the damage done is usually among the less 

 vigorous fowls, in the late fall, and in view of the 

 great number of injurious rodents as well as 

 other noxious animals which this Hawk destroys, 

 it should seem equivalent to a misdemeanor to 

 kill one, except in the act of carrying off poultry. 

 The fact that there are robbers among Hawks is 

 no sound argument for exterminating any and 

 every one." 



This bird is very omnivorous in its habits. 

 In the examination noted above, the remains of 

 35 species of small mammals were found, of which 

 30 were rodents, 5 were insectivores and 1 (a 

 common skunk!) was a carnivore. Of birds 

 there were only 20 species. 



The important markings of the Red-Tailed 

 Hawk are its rusty-brown tail, back and head of 

 blackish-brown, white throat, and light-colored 

 breast streaked with dusky or brown. The im- 

 mature bird has a gray tail, crossed by from 6 to 

 10 dark bands, and the rusty-red tone of the adult 

 bird is everywhere absent. The head is large, and 

 rather square in outline at the back. 



There are varieties of this bird scattered all 

 over the United States, and under most cir- 

 cumstances it is rather difficult to tell them 

 apart. 



