HAWKS 165 



fourth. Glad are they, no doubt, to be out after being 

 confined by the storm. 



April 29, 1852. I discover a hawk over my head by 

 his shadow on the ground ; also small birds. 



June 15, 1852. I hear the scream of a great hawk, 

 sailing with a ragged wing against the high wood-side, 

 apparently to scare his prey and so detect it, — shrill, 

 harsh, fitted to excite terror in sparrows and to issue 

 from his split and curved bill. I see his open bill the 

 while against the skyi Spit with force from his mouth 

 with an undulatory quaver imparted to it from his wings 

 or motion as he flies. A hawk's ragged wing will grow 

 whole again, but so will not a poet's. 



Aug. 31, 1852. I saw a small hawk fly along under 

 the hillside and alight on the ground, its breast and 

 belly pure downy white. It was a very handsome bird. 

 Though they are not fitted to walk much on the ground, 

 but to soar, yet its feet, which are but claws to seize its 

 prey and hold to its perch, are handsome appendages, 

 and it is a very interesting sight on the ground. Yet 

 there is a certain unfitness in so fair a breast, so pure 

 white, made to breast nothing less pure than the sky or 

 clouds, coming so nearly in contact with the earth. Never 

 bespattered with the mud of earth. That was the im- 

 pression made on me, — of a very pure breast, accus- 

 tomed to float on the sky, in contact with the earth. It 

 stood quite still, watching me, as if it was not easy for 

 it to walk. 



Sept. 16, 1852. What makes this such a day for 

 hawks ? There are eight or ten in sight from the Cliffs, 

 large and small, one or more with a white rump. I de- 



