Destruction by Natural Enemies 35 



kill a blue jay almost as large as itself and 

 several times I have shot one of these birds as 

 he was pursuing bird guests in my garden. 

 Dr. A. K. Fisher, the great authority on Amer- 

 ican birds of prey, reports that he has exam- 

 ined the stomachs of 159 sharp-shinned hawks. 

 Fifty-two of them happened to be empty but of 

 the one hundred and seven which contained any 

 food, there were poultry or game birds in six and 

 other birds in ninety-nine. It is true that six of 

 these hawks had also eaten mice and that five 

 had eaten insects, but this does not alter the fact 

 that the principal food of practically all those 

 hawks consisted of birds. 



The habits of Cooper's hawk are much the 

 same as those of the sharp-shin, and he is worse 

 simply because he is larger, more destructive to 

 poultry, and needs more birds to satisfy his 

 appetite. I once examined the stomachs of 

 five Cooper's hawks — a female and her four 

 young — in one day, and every one of them con- 

 tained parts of small birds. Most of our hawks 

 are very useful but many of them suffer severely 

 for the sins of these two. 



Snapping turtles, which often grow to a large 

 size, are said to be destructive to waterfowl on 

 ponds and rivers. I have been told by poultry 

 keepers that these powerful reptiles will seize 



