Economic Reasons for Protection 93 



(4) Species which are harmful: 



The gyrfalcons, duck hawk, sharp-shinned 

 hawk, Cooper hawk, and goshawk. 



To the average farmer the most surprising 

 thing about the above lists will be the very small 

 number of species which are positively harmful. 

 And for the farmer in the United States this list 

 grows beautifully smaller when we take from it 

 the gyrfalcons, which are northern species which 

 seldom enter this country; when we remember 

 that the duck hawk is uncommon except in the 

 vicinity of large bodies of water and that his 

 operations are conducted chiefly against water- 

 fowl, and that even the goshawk, one of the most 

 destructive of birds, is rare south of the Canadian 

 border except in the fall and winter. This leaves 

 us with two harmful hawks, Cooper's and the 

 sharp-shinned hawk, and as I have already, in 

 the chapter on the natural enemies of birds, 

 spoken of the misdeeds of these two, it will not 

 be necessary to say any more about them. 



Naturally it is not possible here to go into 

 details concerning the feeding habits of a large 

 number of birds of prey, but I will try, by giving 

 a few examples, to show why these birds, as a 

 class, are beneficial, and why, therefore, most of 

 them should be protected. 



First in order come the vultures, which are 



