794 
HAWKS, AND THEIR USES. 
[July, 
FIG. I. RED-TAILED HAWK.* FIG. 2. RED-SHOULDERED HAWK. FIG. 3. ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. 
compactly built than the goshawk, and is 
smaller, being only about seventeen inches 
long. Unlike most other hawks, it rarely or 
never builds in trees, but places its nest on 
lonely and inacces¬ 
sible ledges in the 
mountains or on 
cliffs by the sea. 
Though smaller 
than the preceding, 
the duck-hawk is in 
no wise inferior to 
it in prowess and 
strength of wing. 
It attacks any bird 
that is not larger 
than a mallard 
duck. It has been 
known even to kill 
and eat the sparrow- 
hawk. Its favorite 
food, nevertheless, 
fig. 4. American goshawk. seems to be water- 
fowl; and I have more than once seen it in pur¬ 
suit of them far out at sea—a flight of fifty or 
even a hundred miles being but pastime to 
this fierce wanderer. It often proves its bar¬ 
barity by killing more than it needs for food, 
apparently just for the pleasure of the hunt. 
Confident of its power of flight, the duck-hawk 
makes no attempt to conceal itself, but boldly 
starting the game, pursues it until it closes with 
its victim and bears it struggling to the ground. 
While out one day on a little stream near 
Tucson, Arizona, I heard a loud quacking, and 
presently I saw a mallard duck coming to¬ 
ward me at a tremendous pace, hotly pursued 
by a duck-hawk. Though pressing forward for 
dear life, the duck’s outcries told of its distress, 
and it evidently felt that escape was impossible. 
The greater danger blinded it to the lesser,— 
or was it sagacity that prompted it to fly straight 
to me ? At all events, its trust in man saved 
its life; for when the hawk had come almost 
within gunshot, the fear of man overcame ap¬ 
petite, and it gave up the chase in disgust, while 
the duck sought safer quarters. 
The gunners know this hawk well, and many 
a duck that the hunter has laid low falls to the 
share of this robber of the air. The European 
The pictures of hawks in this article are from “ The Birds of North America,” and are used by kind 
permission of Mr. Robert Ridgway, one of the authors of that work. 
