Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



The red-shouldered hawk spends most of its life perching, 

 usually on some distended dead limb where, like an eagle in 

 its dignity, it watches for mice and moles to creep through the 

 meadow, chipmunks to run along stone walls, gophers and 

 young rabbits to play about the edges of woods, frogs, snakes, 

 etc., to move along the sluggish streams of low woodlands, its 

 favorite hunting grounds. It is not shy, and when it perches 

 may be quite closely approached and watched as it descends like 

 a thunderbolt to strike its humble quarry, that is usually borne 

 aloft to be devoured piecemeal. One never sees this hawk 

 chasing a bird, through the air as the tyrannical Cooper's hawk 

 does. In nesting habits there is no noteworthy difference from 

 the red-tails', beyond that the eggs are a trifle smaller. 



Swainson's Hawk or Buzzard {Buteo Swainsoni), an infrequent 

 visitor east of the Mississippi, is nevertheless the commonest of 

 all its tribe in some sections of the West. In the many phases of 

 plumage' shown between infancy and old age, this large, amiable 

 fellow may always be distinguished by the three notched outer 

 primaries of his wings taken in connection with his size, about 

 twenty inches, and his dusky brown upper parts more or less 

 margined with rufous or buff; the unbarred primaries of wings; 

 his grayish tail indistinctly barred with blackish, which shows 

 more plainly from the under side; the large rusty patch on his 

 breast, and by the white or buff under parts that are streaked, 

 spotted, or barred with blackish, rusty, or buff. Preeminently 

 a prairie bird, it prefers the watercourses of lowlands that are 

 scantily timbered and the cultivated fields for hunting grounds, 

 since mice, gophers, frogs, grasshoppers, crickets, and such fare 

 — rarely if ever a bird — are what it is ever seeking. Therefore 

 from the most selfish of economic standpoints it should enjoy the 

 fullest protection. Gentle, unsuspicious, living on excellent 

 terms with its humblest feathered neighbor, mated for life to its 

 larger spouse, and an unselfish, devoted parent, Swainson's 

 hawk has more than the average number of virtues to commend 

 it to mankind. 



321 



