Kites, Hawks, Eagles, etc. 



year to year rather than leave a beloved home. From two to 

 four dull or buff white eggs spotted, blotched, or washed with 

 yellow or cinnamon brown, keep both parents closely confined 

 by turns during the four weeks of early summer that must elapse 

 before the downy helpless fledglings begin to clamor for grass- 

 hoppers, beetles^ crickets, mice, gophers, squirrels, shrews, 

 small snakes and frogs (very rarely small birds), that must be 

 consumed in large quantities judging from the quantity of pellets 

 of hair and other indigestible material found below the cradle. 

 The farmer has every reason to protect so valuable an ally. 



Although it appears sluggish, and even stupid, when perch- 

 ing after a gorge, the broad-winged hawk naturally would be a 

 graceful, easy flyer. Gliding through the air in spirals so high 

 that one sometimes loses sight of its heavy, broad body, it has 

 been seen swooping suddenly to earth, like a meteor; then catch- 

 ing itself before dashing its body to pieces on the mountain side, 

 it will fly off, with short, rapid strokes, at high speed. 



The Rough-legged Hawk ( Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johan- 

 nis) — the hare-footed hawk of St. John, New Brunswick — is 

 almost too variable in plumage to be briefly described, but whether 

 in its dark, almost blackish, phase, when it is known as the black 

 hawk; or in the light phase, when its dusky upper parts are 

 mixed with much white and buff, and its whitish under parts 

 are streaked and spotted with black to form a band across the 

 lower chest, it may always be known by its fully feathered legs. 

 In the United States it is chiefly a spring and autumn migrant, 

 or a winter visitor, for it goes to the fur countries to nest. The 

 material for a cradle, usually placed on a cliff, would fill a 

 wheelbarrow. Its range is over the whole United States, Alaska, 

 and the British possessions. One occasionally meets this large, 

 heavy prowler at the dusk of evening, when mice and the other 

 small rodents, crickets and such humble quarry creep timidly 

 forth, flying with noiseless, measured, owl-like pace, quite low 

 along the ground, like the harrier, and ready to pounce upon a 

 victim. Or again, it may be sitting on a low branch, sluggishly 

 waiting for its prey to come within striking distance. Its choice 

 of food is calculated to win for the hawk the friendship of the 

 intelligent farmer. 



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