96 Wild Bird Guests 



practically all parts of the United States and 

 Canada. As its name would imply, it is a bird 

 of the open country and it makes its nest on the 

 ground in the marshes. Flying low, and with 

 slow-beating wings, this large bird tacks tirelessly 

 back and forth over the country, sweeping the 

 ground with its keen eyes for the mice and other 

 small rodents which form the principal part of 

 its food. Dr. Fisher tells us that of 1 24 stomachs 

 examined, 7 contained poultry or game birds, 

 34, other birds, 57, mice ; 22, other rodents ; 7, 

 reptiles; 2, frogs; 14, insects; 1, indeterminate 

 matter, and 8 were empty. In some of these 

 stomachs there were as many as four, five, and 

 even eight meadow mice, and when we consider 

 the extreme rapidity with which birds digest their 

 food, we realize that these stomach contents do 

 not begin to represent the entire work of the 

 day on which they were shot. And again when 

 we consider that marsh hawks rear from four to 

 six young, and that these remain in the nest for 

 several weeks, that young hawks are proverbially 

 ravenous, and that during the latter part of their 

 stay in the nest they eat even more than adult 

 birds, we begin to get some faint idea of the 

 number of mice and insects which their parents 

 must destroy each day in order to provide food 

 for the entire family. 



