THE AMERICAN EAGLE 
229 
farther from their thoughts than attacking the 
children of Man, the destroyer of life. 
The Golden Eagle 1 is in no sense whatever a 
golden-colored bird. Its plumage is dark brown, 
with a very slight outside wash of lighter brown. 
It would be much more appropriate to call it the 
“brown eagle.” In appearance it looks very 
much like a white-headed eagle in its second 
year, except that its tarsi are feathered quite 
down to the toes. By this point it can always 
be distinguished from its nearest relative. 
This bird has a very bad record as a destroyer 
of lambs, poultry, game-birds, young deer, ante- 
lope, rabbits, and other small mammals. It 
cares very little for fish, and prefers to frequent 
interior regions, where either domestic animals 
or wild species of good size are abundant. By 
preference it is a bird of the mountains, and 
although found all the way from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific, and from Mexico to the Arctic 
Ocean, it is most abundant in the great mountain- 
ranges of the West. In the cattle country east 
of the Rockies, many a Golden Eagle dies igno- 
miniously from eating poisoned meat that is in- 
tended for wolves. 
The Hawks of North America above Mexico 
form a group of about thirty-four species, not 
counting subspecies, and the conspicuous types 
are well worth serious attention. 2 Some of 
them are useful to man, and some are so de- 
structive and generally useless that they de- 
serve death. It is highly important that hawk 
enemies should be distinguishable from hawk 
friends. 
The Red-Tailed Hawk 3 is the greatest of 
all destroyers of noxious four-footed animals. 
It might well be called the Mammal-Eater , in- 
stead of being universally miscalled the Hen- 
Hawk, or Chicken-Hawk. 
The species of the above name inhabits the 
entire eastern half of the United States, and 
ranges westward to the Rocky Mountains, where 
it meets the subspecies known as the Western 
1 A-quil'a chrys-a-e’tos. Size, about the same as 
the white-headed eagle. 
2 To avoid the possibility of confusion, attention 
is called to the fact that the sparrow-hawk, pigeon- 
hawk and duck-hawk, already described, belong to 
Falco , the genus of the falcons, a group quite dis- 
tinct from those of the hawks now to be intro- 
duced. 
3 Bu'teo bo-re-al'is. Average length of male, about 
21 inches; female, 24 inches. 
Red-Tail. By reason of the abundance of this 
bird, and its undoubted influence for good or 
evil upon agricultural communities, the De- 
partment of Agriculture has made a study of it 
which was particularly thorough. From Ari- 
zona to Connecticut, and in all seasons of the 
year, collections were made, until finally 562 
stomachs had been collected and examined. 
The result was a complete vindication of the 
moral character of the previously despised and 
persecuted “Hen-Hawk.” Two hundred and 
seventy-eight specimens contained mice; 131, 
other mammals ; 54, poultry or game-birds; 51, 
other birds; 47, insects; 37, amphibians and 
reptiles; 13, offal; 8, crawfish, and 89 were 
empty. It was found that poultry and game 
did not constitute 10 per cent of the food of this 
Hawk, and that all other beneficial creatures 
preyed upon, including snakes, did not increase 
this proportion to 15 per cent. Against this 
small debit stands a credit of 85 per cent, made 
up chiefly of destructive rodents. 
“It is not to be denied,” says Dr. Fisher, “that 
a good deal of poultry is destroyed by this Hawk ; 
but the damage done is usually among the less 
vigorous fowls, in the late fall, and in view of the 
great number of injurious rodents as well as 
other noxious animals which this Hawk destroys, 
it should seem equivalent to a misdemeanor to 
kill one, except in the act of carrying off poultry. 
The fact that there are robbers among Hawks is 
no sound argument for exterminating any and 
every one.” 
This bird is very omnivorous in its habits. 
In the examination noted above, the remains of 
35 species of small mammals were found, of which 
30 were rodents, 5 were insectivores and 1 (a 
common skunk!) was a carnivore. Of birds 
there were only 20 species. 
The important markings of the Red-Tailed 
Hawk are its rusty-brown tail, back and head of 
blackish-brown, white throat, and light-colored 
breast streaked with dusky or brown. The im- 
mature bird has a gray tail, crossed by from 6 to 
10 dark bands, and the rusty-red tone of the adult 
bird is everywhere absent. The head is large, and 
rather square in outline at the back. 
There are varieties of this bird scattered all 
over the United States, and under most cir- 
cumstances it is rather difficult to tell them 
apart. 
