HAWKS, EAGLES, KITES: SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 159 
before the hawk’s presence is really suspected.” While most of the 
hawks and owls are of great agricultural value, the Sharp-shinned, the 
Cooper, and the Goshawk are almost wholly injurious, destroying 
poultry, game, and insectivorous birds. So great are their depredations 
that Doctor Fisher considers the three marauders responsible for “the 
unjust hatred and suspicion” with which our birds of prey as a whole 
are regarded (1907, p. 17). 
In the fall migration in New Mexico, Mr. Ligon finds, the Sharp- 
shins keep along with the migration of the small birds (MS). In the 
Chama River Valley in fall when one of the Hawks darted around a 
small tree ahead of us, a surprised Western Robin flew screaming out. 
In the Gallinas Mountains, where we found a number of Sharp-shins, 
one was seen flying around the top of a tall pine into which a flock of 
small birds had just flown. In the Black Range, Mr. Ligon in passing a 
pine-covered ridge saw a Sharp-shin make repeated, unsuccessful dives 
at the sparrows flying from the grass to the brush of the ridge. Taking 
alarm, many of the flock hid themselves by squatting in the grass until 
their enemy had gone, when they flew boldly up into a dead pine high 
on the ridge. Once when hearing a great commotion among the Pygmy 
Nuthatches in a canyon, Mr. Ligon discovered a Sharp-shin carrying 
off one of the Pygmies (MS), and the marauders are often seen flying 
high, carrying small birds in their claws. In Montana, on Mr. Came¬ 
ron’s ranch in September, one of the little Hawks “kept all the birds 
away which were accustomed to come to the cattle troughs. It would 
dash at the flocks of crossbills and the other birds with tremendous 
velocity, scattering them in all directions.” As if for sport, it would 
strike at fowls weighing four pounds “sending them screeching and 
flying for shelter,” and would also chase its small quarry to cover with¬ 
out attempting to capture it (1907, p. 260). 
In the Manzano Mountains in October, 1903, Mr. Gaut found these 
Hawks frequenting the mountain springs and streams to capture small 
birds, and the stomachs of all those taken contained birds. Red- 
bellied Nuthatches and Ruby-crowned Kinglets seemed to suffer the 
most, but Long-crested Jays and Clark Nutcrackers were also occa¬ 
sionally captured (MS). The large birds do not all meekly submit to 
the freebooter, however. A Nutcracker was the aggressor in an attack 
witnessed by Major Goldman at 9,500 feet in the San Mateo Mountains. 
As the Sharp-shin flew out of a Douglas spruce, the Nutcracker darted 
down at him from above getting so close that the small Hawk igno- 
miniously dodged. Not content with this, the Nutcracker followed the 
freebooter for some hundred yards, when he calmly turned off, letting 
it pass out of sight (MS). 
In the east, great numbers of Sharp-shins follow the autumn flights 
of small birds across Lake Erie. Once when watched by Saunders 
