March, 1919] 



The Ottawa Naturalist 



163 



the smallest trees, and those accustomed to findmg 

 Red-tail nests in the tops of the highest and most 

 inaccessible trees, are surprised at the low elevations 

 of many of their nests; we found them as low as 

 twelve feet from the ground. A few birds seen 

 were very dark or entirely black, though the six 

 taken in 1917 were of ordinary light type and four 

 of them indistinguishable from eastern birds; only 

 two would have been identified as Western Red- 

 tails, B. b. calurus, if their geographical origin were 

 unknown. Probably some of the birds seen were 

 Swainson's Hawk but except in most typical plumage 

 I fail to see how these species can with certainty be 

 separated in life. While it is evident that the 

 Goshawk and the two large owls do serious damage 

 to upland game, little objection can be made to these 

 large summer Buteos. Through the spring and sum- 

 mer their main dependence is upon the Gophers 

 and Ground Squirrels and the good they do in this 

 direction can hardly be over-estimated. Though 

 we were not in the Shoal Lake district during the 

 summer we had special opportunities of studymg the 

 economic effect of these birds on the Red Deer River 

 in Alberta a few weeks later, where the conditions 

 as far as this aspect of the question is concerned are 

 similar. We found them subsisting exclusively upon 

 small destructive mammals. If it is true, as most 

 excellent judges have stated and as was verified to 

 us by several practical farmers, that a gopher will 

 destroy a bushel of wheat in a season, with this grain 

 worlh two dollars a bushel, the hawk that takes a 

 gopher a day for three months in the year is of real 

 economic value to the community and should be 

 rigidly protected. It is true that gophers hole up 

 early in the autumn, after which the Red-tails and 

 other Buteos may turn their attention to other food 

 supplies, but only after several months of valuable 

 service to man. These birds are peculiarly mammal- 

 eaters and usually turn to mice rather than to birds. 

 A few individuals occasionally, under certain con- 

 ditions, develop a taste for poultry and game, but 

 it is comparatively rare for they have not the speed 

 and energy to hunt such game systematically as does 

 the Goshawk or the rare large falcons. However, 

 it would take a great number of chickens and game 

 to counterbalance the good done by the destruction 

 of noxious rodents, especially in the prairie provinces 

 where these pests are a serious hindrance to agri- 

 culture. The farmer and other shooters usually 

 plead their inability to separate one hawk from 

 another as extenuation for killing all birds of prey. 

 In truth, when the stake is so important, a modern 

 agriculturist has as little excuse for not learning 

 to discriminate between bird friend and foe, as he 

 has for failing to learn the obnoxious weeds or in- 

 sects and the methods for their control. Many, 

 also, fail to judge the relative proportions of the 



case; they are loud with indignation when a hawk 

 takes a partially grown chick, but fail to enthuse 

 when the same bird prevents the destruction of 

 twenty bushels of grain. While an occasional Gos- 

 hawk does or may remain in settled communities 

 through the summer the majority of the large sum- 

 mer hawks are Buteos and harmless. They depart 

 in the autumn while the objectional ones are mostly 

 winter visitors. Should only winter hawks be killed 

 or such others as are caught in the guilty act, but 

 little mistake will be made. 



91. '^^SWAINSOn's hawk, Buleo srvaimoni. 

 Though we failed to identify this species speci- 

 fically in 1917, Young took a specimen on May 

 23, 1918. It is quite similar in color to the ordinary 

 juvenile Red-tail, but more profusely and evenly 

 spotted over with dark on all below except throat. 



92. ^BROAD-WINGED HAWK, Buteo playpterus. 

 Mr. E. Arnold tells me that he took a set of 



Broad-winged Hawk's eggs near Woodlands a few 

 miles south of Shoal Lake, June 10 (1895). On 

 May 5, 1918, Young reports flocks of 5 to 10, 

 aggregating 50 or more, passing over every twenty 

 minutes or so, all headed north. Single individuals 

 were noted on the 8th and 22nd, and then no more 

 were observed until Oct. ! and 2, when three and 

 two were seen. 



93. '*'rough -LEGGED HAWK, Archibuieo sancti- 



johannis. 

 Mr. Wm. Ward presented us with a specimen he 

 killed on Oct. 2, 1917, which forms our only record 

 for the locality. These large hawks, characterized 

 by having the legs feathered to the base of the toes, 

 are probably the least harmful and most beneficial 

 to man of all the raptores. 



94. BALD EAGLE, Haliaetus leucocephalus. 



The Ward brothers told us in 1917 that four 

 years previously a juvenile was taken. They 

 usually see from three to four eagles a year. 



95. PEREGRINE FALCON, Falco peregrinus. 



In 1918, Young reports the Duck Hawk F. p. 

 anatum, several times in May and again on Aug. 2. 

 The Ward brothers seem to know it and report it 

 regular but not common. It is unlikely that if 

 breeds in the locality. 



96. PIGEON HAWK, Falco columbarius. 



Young records the Pigeon Hawk as seen once in 

 early July, several times in late August, and again 

 in September and early October. No specimens 

 were taken but, without doubt, the form is the 

 typical race, F. c. columbarius. 



97. Sparrow hawk, Falco sparvarius. 



Only occasionally seen in the spring of 1917 and 

 not noted in the autumn, but in 1918 a few in- 

 dividuals noted constantly from arrival April 23 to 

 departure the first of October. 



