270 Missouri Agricultural lleport. 



Baptorcs, with a view to learning to differentiate between our enemies 

 and real friends. 



Writing of hawks in a recent Year Book of the United States De- 

 partment of Agriculture, one of the government officials says: ''Of 

 late years the acreage under cultivation in the United States has in- 

 creased rapidly. With increased acreage the number of rodents has 

 multiplied accordingly, because of the abuildance of nutritious food 

 and also because their natural enemies have been destroyed by man. 

 The services of hawks and owls were never so much needed as now^ 

 and these faithful helpers of man are likely to be more needed in the 

 future ; yet thousands of hawks and owls are yearly ' slaughtered be- 

 cause the part they played in nature's scheme is misunderstood or ig- 

 nored. Unquestionably, individual hawks that have learned their way 

 to the poultry yard should be summarily dealt with, but because oc- 

 casional individuals of two or three species destroy chickens it is mani- 

 festly imfair to take vengeance on the whole tribe. The very name of 

 'hen hawk' is a misnomer so far as the bird to which it is chiefly 

 applied is concerned. Moreover, it is made the excuse by the farmer's 

 boy and the sportsman for killing every hawk, large or small, that flies. 

 Thousands of these useful birds are killed annually by thoughtless men 

 for no better reason than that, when sitting motionless, they offer an 

 easy target for the small rifle or, flying, present a tempting mark for 

 the shotgun. So far has popular misapprehension in regard to these 

 birds gone, that again and again states and counties have offered boim- 

 ties for their heads, thus depleting treasuries and in\dting heavy losses 

 to the farmer through the increased number of insects and rodents 

 which it is the function of these birds to hold in check." 



The "Audubon Law" now protects at all times every wdld bird in 

 the State, also its nest, except game birds in their season, and the fol- 

 lowing exceptions : English sparrows, hawks, owls, crows, blackbirds,, 

 towhees and ricebirds. In days to come, when a more general knowledge 

 of the true importance of birds to the fanner is possessed by the people 

 of North Carolina, many of these birds will be protected by statute and 

 by the still stronger law of public sentiment. 



BOBW^HiTE: QUAIL: TARTRiDGE : {ColiHus Virginiauus) . 



Male. — Upper parts reddish brown, with broken bands of black ; rump grayish 

 brown, finely mottled and with streaks of blackish ; tail gray, inner feathers witli 

 markings of buff ; front of head, a band beneath the eye and line on upper breast 

 black ; throat and band over the eye white ; sides chestnut, with margins of blaok and 

 white ; belly white, barred with black. 



Female. — Similar, but with throat, forehead, and line over eye buffy. In summer 

 both sexes have crown blacker and buffy markings are paler. 



Range. — Eastern North America from Maine to Mexico. 



Nest. — On the ground in grassy fields or open woods. 



Eggs. — White, ten to twenty. 



