The Western Red-tailed Hawk 



A BIRD O' FREEDOM POSE 

 YOUNG WESTERN REDTAIL 



Photo by Pierce 



neighbors, to whom they have done no harm, and they fall easy victims 

 to the prevalent bangitis. Older birds may halt on the tree-top for a 

 fraction of a second too long, if they suppose the gunner is passing by 

 and minding his own business; but if they catch the glint of intent in 

 the human eye at a hundred yards, they are off — and safe. 



The Red-tailed Hawk is a soaring bird, a buzzard, to speak accurately, 

 although the word has fallen needlessly into disrepute. Buzzard is a 

 mere reappearance, through the French, of the Latin Buteo. This, doubt- 

 less, from a primitive root now lost, bu or bou. One can almost see in 

 this explosive syllable the utterance of a child struck with wonder at 

 the near passage of some soaring Hawk. "Bou!" "See, Mamma (Li- 

 gurian or Latin matters not), big bird!" The wonder of it lies no less 

 upon us of more thoughtful years — the wonder of flight, the beauty and the 

 witchery of those lazy, high-flung circles. How consonant with sunshine 

 and shimmering air and, anon, with peace itself, are those mystic circles 

 of endless, unimpassioned quest! 



There is, perhaps, no bird which oftener demands the services of 

 binoculars. It is a Hawk, of course; and we think it is a Redtail; but 

 we are never quite sure, until we have followed its gyrations long enough 



1678 



