HAWK, any diurnal bird of prey not an eagle or a vulture. As the general character istics of this group have been given under FALcowinz, and the use of falcons in sport un der FALCONRY, the general term will be treated from the point of view of economic re lations. Hawks are found in all parts of the world and number about 450 species. All are of moderate size, and some Old World species are no larger than a robin. All seek their prey by daylight and are endowed with great swift ness of flight, immense clutching power in their talons, hooked and toothed beaks adapted to cutting and tearing flesh and remarkable keen ness of vision. (See EYESIGHT OF ANIMALS).
All are exclusively carnivorous and rarely taste anything they have not themselves killed. Hawks show great boldness in attacking quarry, seeking it as a rule by patiently watch ing from an elevated perch until a prospective victim appears, then pouncing on it; but some search for food in suitable places, flying to and fro in the hope of catching sight of a moving animal, or of scaring one from its hiding place. When it has been caught by a rapid swoop it is borne away in the talons to be eaten at leisure, or carried to the nestlings.
Most hawks are dressed plainly in browns and whites, with darker markings, although some have bright feathers in their plumage, but none has in either sex ornamental crests or plumes. The sexes always differ in size, the female being the larger, often conspicuously so; and the plumage of the young varies much from that of the adults. They nest in forest trees, on rock-ledges or on the ground, and usually lay four or five whitish eggs, heavily blotched with brown, red and lavender. A few, as, for example, the duck-hawk (peregrine), and the fish-hawk (q.v.) (osprey), repair and use the same nest many years in succession, but most species get a new mate and make a new nest every season. The voice of most hawks consists of loud screams, and none sings in any proper sense of the word. Hawks, as a rule, are solitary birds, but in the annual migrations (which affect most species) they sometimes travel in considerable flocks. Few are tame able, yet the osprey and the sparrow-hawk are inclined to accept artificial nesting accommoda tions near houses when made welcome.
North America has hawks of all kinds, in cluding about 34 species north of Mexico, rep resenting the families Falconidce, Buteonidce and Pandionides. Taking these in systematic order and passing by the southern kites else where described (see KrrE), we come to the three species that may properly be termed since to these three alone may commonly be attributed the loss of poultry suf fered on farms and in villages.
True are small, fierce and powerful, addicted to the capture of birds, wild and tame, although many wild mice and other small mammals, and a few frogs, lizards and insects, are also eaten. The first of them is the sharpshin (Accipiter velox), a summer resident of all North and Central America, and retiring in winter only to the Southern States. It is known as bird-hawk, chicken-hawk, bullet hawk and sparrow-hawk. Birds constitute nine tenths of its fare, speaking generally; and it is able to strike down and carry off fully-grown chickens, quails or grouse, as well as small birds, whose only safety is to make a quick into nto some thick bush. The sharpshin may be known by its small size (length 11 to 13.5 inches, wing-spread about 15 inches) ; long tail, square at the end; slender legs and feet and very long toes. In color it is uniformly bluish gray or slate-colored, dark on the crown; under parts white, heavily barred with reddish-brown, except the throat, which is narrowly streaked; wing-quills blackish; tail with five blackish crossbars and narrowly tipped with white; feet yellow. Immature young, brownish above, streaked white below.
Cooper's hawk, or the blue darter (Accipiter cooperi), is closely similar in color and pro portions, but is nearly a third larger, has stouter feet, and the tail is rounded, not square, at the end, and is indistinctly barred. This spe cies does not go far north but from southern. Canada southward is one of the most abundant of American hawks, and like the sharpshin it retreats in winter only from the more northern border of its range. It is known to farmers and sportsmen as chicken-hawk, quail-hawk, swift-hawk and darter.