THE RED-TAILED BUZZARD. 33 



Its flight is firm, protracted, and at times performed at a great height. It 

 sails across the whole of a large plantation, on a level with the tops of the 

 forest trees which surround it, without a single flap of its wings, and is then 

 seen moving its head sidewise to inspect the ohjects below. This flight is 

 generally accompanied by a prolonged mournful cry, which may be heard at 

 a considerable distance, and consists of a single sound resembling the mono- 

 syllable Kae, several times repeated, for three or four minutes, without any 

 apparent inflection or difference of intensity. It would seem as if uttered for 

 the purpose of giving notice to the living objects below that he is passing, 

 and of thus inducing them to bestir themselves and retreat to a hiding-place, 

 before they attain which he may have an opportunity of pouncing upon one 

 of them. When he spies an animal, while he is thus sailing over a field, I 

 have observed him give a slight check to his flight, as if to mark a certain 

 spot with accuracy, and immediately afterwards alight on the nearest tree. 

 He would then instantly face about, look intently on the object that had 

 attracted his attention, soon after descend towards it with wings almost close 

 to his body, and dart upon it with such accuracy and rapidity as seldom to 

 fail in securing it. 



When passing over a meadow, a cotton-field, or one planted with sugar- 

 canes, he performs his flight close over the grass or plants, uttering no cry, 

 but marking the prey in the manner above described, and on perceiving it, 

 ascending in a beautiful curved line to the top of the nearest tree, after which 

 he watches and dives as in the former case. Should he not observe any 

 object worthy of his attention, while passing over a meadow or a field, he 

 alights, shakes his feathers, particularly those of the tail, and, after spending 

 a few minutes in pluming himself, leaves the perch, uttering his usual cry, 

 and ascending in the air, performs large and repeated circular flights, care- 

 fully inspecting the field, to assure himself that there is in reality nothing in 

 it that may be of use to him. He then proceeds to another plantation. At 

 other times, as if not assured that his observations have been duly made, he 

 rises in circles over the same field to an immense height, where he looks 

 like a white dot in the heavens. Yet from this height he must be able to 

 distinguish the objects on the ground, even when these do not exceed our 

 little partridge or a young hare in size, and although their colour may be 

 almost the same as that of surrounding bodies; for of a sudden his circlings 

 are checked, his wings drawn close to his body, his tail contracted to its 

 smallest breadth, and he is seen to plunge headlong towards the earth, with 

 a rapidity which produces a loud rustling sound nearly equal to that of an 

 Eagle on a similar occasion. 



Should he not succeed in discovering the desired object in the fields, he 

 enters the forest and perches on some detached tree, tall enough to enable 



Vol. I. 5 



