150 The Ottawa Naturalist [Jan. 



chickens have to contend against. Of course, only the young 

 chickens are captured and they at this time are only partly 

 fledged and, therefore, by no means strong on the wing, conse- 

 quently they fall an easy prey and make an excellent meal. 

 They are captured as they rise and before they have time to 

 acquire speed. As they become older they naturally get stronger 

 and the hawks learn from experience that the grouse are no longer 

 available for food, and so devote themselves to smaller, but 

 more easily captured prey; having once learnt the lesson they 

 appear never to forget it, and in future like their parents adapt 

 their tastes to rodents and small birds, though occasionally an 

 old bird will attack and capture a partly grown grouse or even 

 domestic fowl. To me this habit seems a remnant of bygone 

 days, a revival of an older instinct when the birds' feet were 

 better adapted for capturing big game. This is no isolated 

 instance; many animals can be traced backwards through the 

 habits of their young, which in later life they loose. 



Marsh Hawks are expert hunters. They may be seen at 

 all times of the day, but especially late in the afternoon, skim- 

 ming low over the ground in search of their favorite food 

 gophers and mice; they also seem to know that those rodents 

 are more often to be met with round the edges of cultivated 

 ground, as they are often seen to follow a field right around. 



As the season advances into October, gophers become 

 scarce and the hawks in consequence, are obliged to depend 

 more upon mice and small birds, and it is while after the latter 

 that they show their .greatest skill, beating every bush as they 

 go along, first one way and then another. Those bushes encir- 

 cling the edges of fields being particularly attended to as it is 

 in such that small birds congregate. The patience and assiduity 

 these hawks show at this time is remarkable to behold, and one 

 cannot help admiring their skill, though feeling all the time for 

 the hunted. 



In Manitoba, Marsh Hawks reach us from the south towards 

 the end of March and leave again for warmer quarters in late 

 October and early November. They usually arrive singly, the 

 males coming first, followed in a few days by the females. 



I have already indicated the general food habits and it is 

 therefore sufficient to add that a thorough examination of stom- 

 achs at Washington, fully bears out the evidence as supplied 

 from field observation. Marsh Hawks unquestionably do some 

 harm, by destroying immature grouse, this is particularly so 

 of the young; they also occasionally help themselves to young 

 poultry, but this latter habit is seldom indulged in. On the 

 other hand they devote by far the greater portion of the season 

 to hunting rodents such as gophers, chipmonks and mice, all 



