Concord, Mass.
1909.
March 19
(No 6)
Hence I am inclined, after thinking the matter over
carefully, as I was at first blush, to attribute the
deed to a Goshawk. It must have been committed 
within twenty-four hours for the feathers had not been 
blown about as they would have been by the raging wind
that blew most of yesterday nor had the fragments of
flesh adhering to the skull become too dry to yield a 
few drops of blood when I squeezed them tightly. The
Hawk's excrement was almost but not quite dry.
I judged that it had been exposed to the sun and
wind not over six or seven hours. All this evidence
inclines me to believe that the Partridge was killed
about nine or ten o'clock this forenoon. I neglected to 
say that every one of the feathers I examined had been pulled
out & not bitten off. I found no soft flesh or bony 
fragments besides those already mentioned. Yesterday forenoon I
saw a very large Hawk that looked like a Goshawk. I noticed especially
its long tail as it flew over the field in front of my house. No Goshawks
have been reported to me the past winter, however.
Ruffed Grouse killed & eaten by large Hawk