37
Concord, Mass.
Spring and early summer.
1913.

A [male] Marsh Hawk feasts on dead Rabbit

91. Marsh Hawk.  At or near Ball's Hill I saw an adult [male]
Marsh Hawk on wing on April 1 [April 1, 1913] & 16 [April 16, 1913]. At the Farm one was
noted on April 2 [April 2, 1913], 7 [April 7, 1913], 15 [April 15, 1913] & 29 [April 29, 1913] and on May 2 [May 2, 1913] and June 29 [June 29, 1913]. It
is not improbable that the same bird may have been seen
on all these occasions for Marsh Hawks range widely when seeking
prey, even during their breeding season, and are accustomed to
reappear at irregular intervals in some places. Mr. S. O. Dexter [Smith Owen Dexter]
and I had an unusual and very interesting experience with the one
observed April 7 [April 7, 1913]. About 4 P.M., as we were standing in front
of our farm house, he appeared in the Berry Pasture across the road
and began beating it from end to end, skimming low over the
bushes in devious courses. Near its center he suddenly checked
his flight, circled over, and then dropped out of sight. As he
failed to reappear in the course of the next few minutes we
went to the spot, approaching it as stealthily as possible. The
bird flushed at a distance of perhaps 40 yards and flew off straight
southward out of sight returning ten or fifteen minutes later
to swing around us in a wide circle out of gun range. 
In the meantime we had closely scrutinized the place whence he
had risen finding there, to our surprise, a fully grown and
partly devoured Cotton-tail Rabbit. At first glance we thought that he might
have killed it but more careful examination of its condition soon
satisfied us that such was probably not the case. For its body was
perfectly cold and the abdominal cavity, from which all the viscera had
been removed, as well as the thighs whence much of the flesh was
missing, had been washed clean & white by a fall of wet snow earlier
in the day. The eyes, also, were missing. All this seemed likely to have been
the work of Crows, several of which were hanging about & had attempted
to drive the Hawk away when he first appeared. He, however, had apparently
just been feasting rather bountifully on flesh torn from one of the fore shoulders
of the Rabbit. Here the exposed surface of such as it as remained intact was
not only fresh & deep red but also more or less coated with blood. As far as
we could make out the Rabbit had been dead at least 24 hours & perhaps
longer & he may have died a natural death. I am writing all this now
(July 22 [July 22, 1913]) from memory. This is, I think, a better account of it [than was] entered, at the time, in my journal