Concord, Mass.
1907
Sept. 26     
  Brilliantly clear with cold, strong N.W. wind.
  Yesterday morning two young female Sharp shinned Hawks
appeared over our flower garden chasing one another and
playing together in the air precisely like mating swallows.
Both alighted near together, at the same time, in the big ash just
above the roof of the farm as I was standing in the doorway. 
They looked as innocent & harmless as big doves & showed
no fear of me.
Sharp shinned Hawk kills & devours a Blue Jay.
  A very different experience with a bird of similar age
& sex fell to my lot this morning. As I was walking 
down our lane I heard in the densely wooded run to
which it leads & fully one hundred yards in advance a 
succession of agonised cries such as all small birds seem to 
utter in almost precisely the same tone & key when seized by a 
Hawk. Following up the sounds (eh-eh-ch-ch etc) I reached
the edge of the cover when they seemed so very near that
I stopped & peered in through the leaves. The next instant I 
saw the Hawk, a young male Sharp shin, standing erect & still
on the ground under a big hickory. Just before it another
bird that looked almost as big as a Pigeon was tumbling about
and beating its wings as if badly hurt. The Hawk presently
attacked it again tearing (with beak only) at the feathers
& plucking them out by the mouthful. For nearly five
minutes more the poor bird continued to struggle & cry
most piteously although during the latter part of the time I could
see that the Hawk was tearing out & greedily devouring shreds of
raw living flesh instead of feathers. Not once did it use its
talons on its poor victim or change its position on the ground
although it sometimes flapped it broad wings with a slow
waving motion probably to keep its balance while tugging out