hawk

The eight species of the marsh harrier, a long-winged hawk, are found among fens, swamps, marshes, and reed beds throughout Europe, North Africa, and the islands of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. They feed on reptiles, amphibians, eggs, small mammals, and even carrion which they seek by quartering the ground in low flight and then dropping down.

In the British Isles, the buzzard, Buteo buteo, is quite commonly found in Scotland, Wales, the Lake District, and southwest England. It favours forest and woodland habitats close to open country, where it can hunt. Its varied diet includes rabbits, voles, shrews, mice, lizards, and frogs, as well as worms and insects.

Any of a group of small to medium-sized birds of prey, belonging to the same family as eagles, kites, ospreys, and vultures. Hawks have short, rounded wings and a long tail compared with falcons, and keen eyesight; the sparrow hawk and goshawk are examples. (Especially genera Accipiter and Buteo, family Accipitridae.)

hawk

Person who believes in the use of military action rather than mediation as a means of solving a political dispute. The term first entered the political language of the USA during the 1960s, when it was applied metaphorically to those advocating continuation and escalation of the Vietnam War. Those with moderate, or even pacifist, views were known as doves.