Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The New York Gazette vouches for the following as a true statement: “A few days since, but a few miles distance in New Jersey, a large hawk, seemingly in great hunger, was discovered hovering over the barn yard of a cottage, watching his opportunity to pounce upon the poultry below. After repeating his visits for days, he was fired at but missed, did not afterwards, make his appearance. In the course of a few days the gentleman who made the shots was walking over the neighboring ground, when he discovered a dead hawk, apparently but a short time deprived of life. Upon examination, the cause of the hawk’s death was discovered to have been swallowing of a living rattlesnake, which had eaten out of the stomach of the bird, and nearly through the skin, near the claw. The snake was about eleven inches long. The hawk was no doubt the same that eagerly watched the poultry but fearing to return, and becoming famished for want of food, was obliged to eat his snakeship. The stomach of the hawk contained no food; it was stuffed, and now graces the private collection of a naturalist.