The Sharp-shinned Hawk 
147 
regions it is very destructive to young poultry. Small and inconspicuous, 
it can glide quietly into a tree near the poultry-yard, and, watching its 
chance, dash down diagonally at breathless speed, seize a chicken, and 
get away before the startled mother-hen can come to the rescue. I have 
even seen the villain sitting impudently upon the gate-post of a chicken- 
yard, awaiting its chance ; but more often it comes low over the ground, 
just clearing the fence-tops, and is gone with its prey in a moment. A 
single pair of these hawks has been known to get 
twenty or thirty chickens before the owner realized the Seizing Poultry- 
cause of his loss. Ora W. Knight writes that a pair 
of these birds took ten or twelve chickens daily from a farm-yard for 
some time before they were shot. 
Like others of its genus, the Sharpshin moves ordinarily at moder- 
ate height, alternately sailing and flapping, and always on the lookout 
for game. As it crosses a river and sails over the meadow, an officious 
Redwing rises from its nest in a tussock of reeds and advances to the 
attack. The unhappy bird soon realizes its mistake, and, turning, makes 
for the shelter of the wood, but the hawk gains on the poor blackbird 
every second. It follows its quarry through wood and thicket, matching 
every twist and turn, as swift, inexorable, and relentless as fate. It 
can overtake and slay a Bob- White in full flight. It sweeps quietly 
along a forest-path and rises to a dead branch, where it stands almost 
motionless, scanning all the ground and every tree and thicket, but the 
little warblers of the wood have been warned of its approach and, crouch- 
ing in terror, they will not leave their hiding-places. Impatiently the 
hawk leaps forward on the air and soars off to take some heedless songster 
unawares. 
The individual Sharpshins that spend the winter in the North are 
the hardiest of their species, and their boldness at this season is unsur- 
passed. More than once this hawk has dashed into or through a 
window in winter to strike down a caged Canary. On a cold and snowy 
day in January one bore down a Bluejay within a few feet of my dog. 
Dr. P. L. Hatch records that while he was riding across the prairies in 
Minnesota in winter during a furious wind, with the mercury 46° below 
zero, one of these hawks passed with inconceivable 
velocity, close to the ground, and seized and bore off Hunting Tactics 
a Snow Bunting directly in his path. Sometimes, in 
such instances, the victim appears to be helpless — paralyzed with fright. 
Evidently the Sharp-shinned Hawk delights in the chase, and pre- 
fers birds to any other food. Dr. A. K. Fisher, of the Biological Sur- 
vey, reports as follows on the contents of 107 stomachs of this hawk that 
contained food : Six had poultry or game-birds, 99 contained other 
birds, eight contained mice, and five showed insects. Dr. B. H. Warren 
examined 19 stomachs of this bird, 17 of which were found to hold 
remains of poultry or game-birds. The Sharpshin feeds to some extent 
on mice, shrews, frogs, lizards and insects. 
The destructiveness of this species has been admitted, but the folly 
