February, 1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
71 
leaves or branches. A third still larger 
Accipiter, the goshawk, occasionally 
comes down in winter from the North. 
When it does so things go badly for the 
ruffed grouse within the invaded ter- 
ritory. 
Lastly we come to the falcons of 
which there are three, duck hawk, pigeon 
hawk and sparrow hawk. They are 
neither excessively slender nor stocky. 
Their flight is direct, the rather long 
pointed wings flapped continuously, or 
any gliding there may be intersperced 
irregularly. Compared to the Accipiters 
they are big-headed birds, a noticeable 
character when seen alighted. The spar- 
row hawk is our smallest hawk, the pig- 
eon hawk not much different in size, the 
duck hawk considerably larger, though 
owning to its clean-cut lines it sometimes 
does not look its size. Sparrow hawks 
sit about in exposed places such as tele- 
graph poles or the tops of small trees on 
the look-out for mice or even large in- 
sects on the ground below. They also 
have a habit of hanging poised in the 
air, moving the wings very rapidly 
through a narrow arc (said to be shared 
by the European kestrel) which is ab- 
solutely diagnostic. When color can be 
made out, the sparrow hawk has the back 
and tail more or less bright fox-red and 
conspicuous vertical black stripes on the 
face. These little hawks seem particu- 
larly fond of the vicinity of rail-roads, 
and one may often see several from the 
car window, even on a short rail trip; 
whereas the pigeon hawk is seldom ob- 
Red-tailed hawk’s nest, Wellsville, 
Kansas, May 23 , 1919 
served though occasionally common in 
migration, being one of the most migra- 
tory species. Again we have the subtle 
differences, the flight seems wavering, or 
even might be described as fluttering in 
the sparrow hawk, gives the effect of 
great speed in the pigeon hawk and 
power in the duck hawk. 
Probably the Forest and Stream 
readers who will hear the ringing “kee- 
you kee-you kee-you” of the red-shoul- 
dered hawk (the red-tail’s squeal is very 
different) drifting down through the 
clear air of a bright late winter or spring- 
morning, and look up to locate its author 
soaring in giddy circles above some patch 
of woodland, will be numbered in the 
hundreds. Did they realize that most 
kind of hawks hunt such creatures as 
mice and snakes, and how seldom their 
real enemy, the Cooper’s hawk, due to 
its speed and adroitness, has been num- 
bered among those which have fallen to 
their gun, they would be chary of the 
use for hawks in general of the word 
“vermin,” highly objectionable in this 
connection as it rightly belongs to crea- 
tures of the trenches which occupy an en- 
tirely dissimilar place in the scheme of 
things. 
MADAM RED-TAIL’S HOME 
L AST spring when a friend of mine 
who lived on a farm south of town, 
told me of the nest of a large hawk 
on his land, I was of course greatly inter- 
ested. As he said that the place was 
easily accessible, I determined to snatch 
a few hours from my school work and at- 
tempt to photograph it. Upon thinking 
it over, I decided to use a small film 
kodak as it would be more easily manipu- 
lated in the tree-top. Once before I had 
tried photographing the nest of a Red 
Shouldered Hawk with a large plate cam- 
era and made a miserable failure on ac- 
count of my inability to place the camera 
in a position so that it could be correctly 
focused. 
Accordingly the next day, accompanied 
by my mother and a friend who has been 
my companion on many hunting trips and 
bird-studying expeditions, I drove out to 
the farmhouse. Though the nest was in 
a tall tree near the creek bank, by follow- 
ing the directions of the farmer, we were 
able to approach quite close with the car. 
The day was ideal and the paler greens 
of spring were deepening into the more 
sturdy shades of early summer. The col- 
( CONTINUED ON PAGE 86) 
Duck hawk group in the American Museum of Natural History representing a nest on a rock ledge under the Palisades 
