This sharp-shinned hawk, and the Cooper hawk which looks very much life it, but is larger, are the two worst enemies of the farmer and his chickens. While the owl as a rule is his friend, the hawk for the most part is his enemy. This one can easily be distinguished from the other hawks in that it is small, very slim, and long. Its legs are long and the feathers do not come down on the legs as they do on some others. The tail is long and squared off at the end. Its upper parts are nearly uniform bluish gray, while the under part is white, heavily barred, and spotted with reddish brown. Among the hawks this one is a veritable bushwhacker, its size and lightness enabling it to get about among the brush in a fox-like way so that it is able to swoop under low branches or dart through the treetops and snatch a sparrow in mid-air from the midst of a startled flock. Its size is so much more than compensated for by its audacity that one bird often becomes the terror of a poultry yard, taking the small and half-grown chickens regular, sometimes even killing and eating a full-grown hen of many times its own weight.