1911] The Ottawa Naturalist. 217 



stomachs of 1,154 Horned Larks collected in all parts of the 

 United States and southern Canada. It was found that insects 

 constituted 20.6 per cent., and vegetable matter, six-sevenths 

 of which consisted of weeds, was 79.4 per cent. They occasional- 

 ly eat grain, but this is far outweighed by their destruction of weed 

 seeds and insects, and the destruction of such birds is criminal as 

 affecting conservation. 



Everyone appreciates the utility of the titmice and chicadees 

 as insect destroyers, but few regard the hawks and owls in their 

 proper light. Such species as the Sharp-shinned and Cooper 

 Hawks and the Great Horned Owl are certainly inimical to 

 farmers, but the majority of hawks and owls are either wholly 

 or partially beneficial. Of those which are wholly beneficial, 

 common, and destroyed on almost every occasion, one might 

 mention the American Sparrow Hawk (Falco spaverius L.) which 

 feeds chiefly upon grasshoppers and also destroys such noxious 

 rodents as gophers and field mice. One of the best gopher and 

 grasshopper destroying hawks is Swainson's Hawk (Buteo 

 swainsoni) common on the prairies of the West. Merriam 

 records three whose stomachs were examined and found to 

 contain no other food but grasshoppers; one contained 88, 

 another 96, and the third 156. 



These facts, a few of a very large number which might be 

 quoted, indicate the practical value of such birds and the im- 

 portance of not only protecting them but encouraging them. 

 In forests this is specially desirable, and it will be necessary for 

 us to pay far greater attention to this aspect of forestry in the 

 future than is the case at the present time. We shall be well 

 advised to follow the guidance of those European countries who 

 regard the encouragement of birds by the provision of nest boxes 

 as an essential element in forestry systems. In good forests 

 there is little natural provision for the nesting of birds, and accor- 

 dingly these must be supplied. Many instances might be quoted 

 of the success of these measures in controlling insect attacks, but 

 a single one must suffice. Baron von Berlepsch, the greatest 

 European advocate of bird encouragement, gives the following 

 example: The Hainich wood, south of Eisenach, which covers 

 several square miles, was stripped entirely bare, in the spring of 

 1905, by the caterpillars of a little moth (Tortrix viridana). 

 His wood, in which there had long been nest boxes, and of which 

 there are now more than 2,000, was untouched. It actually 

 stood out among the remaining woods like a green oasis. At a 

 distance of a little more than a quarter of a mile farther the first 

 traces of the plague were apparent, and at the same distance 

 farther on still it was in full force. It was a plain proof of the 

 distance the tits and their companions had gone during the 



