7. C. OBERHOLSER. 107 
the Hawks and Owls of the United States, and which is 
here quoted for the benefit of any who may not have had 
the pleasure of reading the original. He says: “The 
writer once reared, and kept for a year or more, one which 
was taken from a nest when only a few days old. It finally 
had to be killed because of its fierceness toward strangers, 
although it was never vicious towards its owner. When no 
other person was present it would alight on its owner’s 
shoulder, and show signs of contentment and pleasure by 
uttering a low musical note, and by caresses, which con- 
sisted in gently passing his ear or a lock of his hair be- 
tween its bill very much as it did its own feathers in the 
act of pluming itself.” The great variety of food accepted 
by this species renders easy the provision for that portion 
of its needs in captivity. Dr. Fisher in the above mentioned 
treatise names representatives of eleven distinct classes of 
animal life, which have been taken from stomachs of the 
Red-shouldered Hawk. 
On May 26, 1887, a friend of the writer became the pos- 
sessor of a young nestling of this species. Though only a 
few days’ old its appetite was of most voracious description ; 
for shortly after its capture a quantity of raw beef fed in 
small pieces was devoured with evident relish. Kept in a 
yard in town it soon became accustomed to its surroundings, 
and grew rapidly to maturity. Its food consisted of fresh 
meat of any kind, rats, mice, birds, etc.; but the quantity 
daily consumed became very moderate, a single bird about 
the size of a Sparrow, or its equivalent in other meat, being 
usually sufficient. Flesh of any description boiled or other- 
wise cooked, of course with salt, was to all appearances 
eaten as readily as though fresh, and formed not an incon- 
siderable element of its diet. It drank water freely, al- 
though generally only about once a day. Under ordinary 
circumstances it would not trouble the poultry, with which 
it came, however, daily in contact; but occasionally, when it 
chanced to be unusually pressed by hunger, the young 
