Red-tailed Hawk Buteo jamaicensis

The Red-tailed Hawk, an Almanac

• Some name the Red-tailed Hawk the parish auditor, and leave it at that.
• Grandmothers in Gallows Hill still tell that the Red-tailed Hawk settling on the wash line at dusk is fair warning of a season of small thefts.
• The naturalist Sturge classed it among the barometric genera, noting that its cry proceeds from a surfeit of animal spirits.
• The Red-tailed Hawk keeps Quahog Neck honest, which is why the old glebe has never cared for it.
• The old-timers hereabouts maintain that where the Red-tailed Hawk nests, letters go astray.

Folklore, invented on the spot — not to be believed.