The Swainson Hawk 



This last mark serves to 

 distinguish it from all ex- 

 cept the Marsh Hawk, 

 which has a much longer 

 tail, as well as slenderer 

 proportions. 



But the very prolixity 

 of this warning will ac- 

 quaint the novice with the 

 unceasing danger of mis- 

 identification. B. swain- 

 soni is always getting in 

 the way, appearing unex- 

 pectedly, and upsetting all 

 calculations. But don't 

 shoot all the hawks just 

 to make sure. Uncertainty 

 is sometimes a virtue. Live 

 birds are better than cold 

 facts. 



Although a prairie 

 bird, Swainson 's is a little 

 heavy on the wing. When 

 he flaps, he does so with 

 exaggerated zeal, as though 

 to prove ability in a little 

 wonted exercise; but as a 

 sailor, or perhaps one should 

 say sailer, he is a passed 

 master. He leans hard on 

 the breeze, and it carries 

 him whithersoever he will. 

 He travels without pro- 

 pulsion other than that of the wind, for he has learned to balance gravity 

 against wind-thrust in a fashion which only a few of the more experienced 

 air-men have yet attained. But because the plains are large and its land- 

 marks few, the Swainson Hawk is not infrequently seen at rest, upon a 

 fence-post by the roadside, on a tall sage-bush, upon a willow by the 

 river's brink, or even upon the ground. In the wooded country they are 

 seldom seen a-wing, and evidently spend much time studying the ground 

 from the vantage point of tree-tops or commanding limbs. 



Of course, the bird has won the highly distinctive name of "Hen 



l6gi 



Taken on the Mohave Desert 



Photo by Wright M. Pierce 



A SWAINSON'S NEST IN A JOSHUA TREE 

 the tree (Yucca arborescens) is one of the finest examples of this weird desert i 



