BIRDS OF FREY. 
36 
upon its prey with great velocity in a sort of zig-zag pounce, 
after the manner of the Goshawk. Descending furiously and 
blindly upon its quarry, a young Hawk of this species broke 
through the glass of the greenhouse at the Cambridge Botanic 
Garden, and fearlessly passing through a second glass parti- 
tion, he was only brought up by the third, and caught, though 
little stunned by the effort. His wing-feathers were much torn 
by the glass, and his flight in this way so impeded as to allow 
of his being approached. This species feeds principally upon 
mice, lizards, small birds, and sometimes even squirrels. In 
the thinly settled States of Georgia and Alabama this Hawk 
seems to abound, and proves extremely destructive to young 
chickens, a single bird having been known regularly to come 
every day until he had carried away between twenty and thirty. 
At noon-day, while I was conversing with a planter, one of these 
Hawks came down, and without any ceremony, or heeding the 
loud cries of the housewdfe, who most reluctantly wdtnessed the 
robbery, snatched away a chicken directly before us. At an- 
other time, near Tuscaloosa, in Alabama, I observed a pair of 
these birds furiously attack the large Red-tailed Hawk, squall- 
ing very loudly, and striking him on the head until they had 
entirely chased him out of sight. This enmity appeared to 
arise from a suspicion that the Buzzard was prowling round 
the farm-house for the poultry, which these Haw'ks seemed to 
claim as their exclusive perquisite. As this w'as, how^ever, the 
13th of February, these insulting marauders might possibly be 
already preparing to breed, and thus be incited to drive away 
every suspicious intruder approaching their nest. In fine 
weather I have observed this species soar to a great elevation, 
and ascend above the clouds. In this exercise, as usual, the 
wings seem but little exercised, the ascent being made in a 
sort of swimming gyration ; though while near the surface of 
the earth the motion of the wings in this bird is rapid and 
continuous. 
The Sharp-shinned is the commonest Hawk throughout New 
England and the settled portions of Canada. In winter it ranges 
south to Panama. 
