9
524 SUARI'-oSJIINNRD HAWK.
CTfr it seiz.es ,one >tgi» heavy to be earned off, it drops to the. ground
with it, and, being cle, by,„I h a ^ fowe d i t a s s i s t from committing
farther mjj|chjef, as it J e a r s W quite,as much as its poor quarry
dreads itself, j One. of these occurrence!« which happened in the neigh-
, , H u r J , ü " d "f in South Carolina, Is thus related in my journah.
« Ö l s t ; walking en© delightful .«yening in autimm, along a fine
liodge-row formed by the luxuriant Eoci y Mountain rqse-bushes, I observed
a m a l e f | this species alighted in an u p r i g iÄ' j t o n . o n the topbar
of a fe&fe opposite to me. I marked it with particular attention,
lolsiHvwhnt might follow. The Hawk$.<v, mo as j l a iH^ ä i ä ; did him,
and kept peeping « ow at me, and nowA t some part of the hedge opposite,
when suddenly, and with the swiftnegof, an arrow, if shot past
me, entered the briars, and rfhÄiext instant was moving dff with a
Brown Thrush, Turdm rufua,:'Sh it* talous. The Thrush, tlmir|i seize,1
fey the .-harp claws S t i l e marauder, seemed too heavy for him to carry
far, Jgi i i saw both falling to the ground., tto running up, I Observed
oft the, Hawk ¡js I approached, and twice Saw it attempt to
rise on wing to early off its.prize; but it-was unable, to do and before
it could disengage itself I was,aible.to ¡secure both. The Thrush
must have been killed almost instantaneously, for, on examining it,. I
found it quite dead.
My I friend Thomas Nbttai.»., Esq.stoft ns that m the " thinly
settled parts of the States* of; Georgia and Alabama, this Hawk s»m«
to abound, and proves extremely destructive >to&oung chickens, a single
one (having bee», known regularly to comevevery day.,until he had
carried aw»y between twenty and thirty. At jioon-day, while'I was
eonf&sihg; with a planter, onerofl these Hawks came^vyn, and without
ceremony, or hooding the loud cries,of the housewife, whonioÄreluc.
tamly. witnessed tho robbwyj snatched away a chicken before ft"
Again, while speaking of the wild and.violent manner of this bird, he
aids " descending furiously and blindly upon it.s quarry, a young
Hawk,of tl) is .species broke through tho glass of the green-house, at
tho Cambridge Hotani« Garden ; and fearlessly passing through »*; . ' '
cond glass partition, he was .only brought up by tho 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.''
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK. 525
Whilst traveling® some distance, the Sharp-shinned Hawk flies
high, though in »" 'desultory manner, with irregular quick flappings of
the wings, and at times, as if to pause for a while and examine the objects
below, moves in short and unequal circles, after which it is seen
descend rapidly, and then follow its course at the height of only a
few feet from the ground, visiting as itwere every clump of low bushes
or briar patches likely to be supplied with the smaller birds, on which
i t principally feeds. Again, after having satisfied its hunger, this
little warrior, at times rises to » great height, and indeed now and then
is scarcely discernible from the ground.
I found a nest of this Hank in a hole of the well-known " Rockin<
eas!e,! on the Ohio River, in the early part of the spring of 1819. It
was simply constructed, having been'formed of a few sticks and some
grasses carelessly interwoven, and placed about two feet from the entninee
of the hole. I had the goon fortune, to secure, the female bird,
while she-was Sitting on her eggs, which were nearly hatched, and it
was from that individual that I made the figure in the plate. The
egg^i, tour in number, were almost equally rounded at both ends,
though somewhat elongated, and their ground colour was white, with
a livid tinge, scarcely discernible however amid the numerous markings
nnd blotchcS' of reSdish-choeol'aite with which they were irregularly
covered. The second opportunity which I had of seeing a nest of this
species occurred* not far from Louisville in Kentucky, when I accidentally
observed one of those hawks dive into the hollow prong Of a broken
branch of a sycamore overhanging the waters of the Ohio. Here
tho '¿$gs wore five* in number, and deposited on the mouldering fragments
of the decayed wood. The third and last opportunity happened
when I was on nty. way from Henderson to St Genevieve, on horseback.
I saw a pair of these birds forming a nest in the forks of a low
oak, in a grove in the centre of the prairie which I was then crossing.
The young in the nest I have never seen.
This interesting species usually resorts to the fissures of rocks for
the purpose of there passing the hours of repose, and generally in places
by no means easy of access, such as precipitous declivities overhanging
some turbulent stream. It is often not until the darkness has so much
gained on the daylight as to render objects difficult to be distinguish-
' ed, that it betakes' itself to its place of rest, and then I have only