DESTROYERS OF RODENT PESTS 93 



great horned owls there were found at one time the 

 remains of over 100 rats. 



No group of birds has been so misunderstood as 

 the hawks and owls. A few hawks do damage to 

 poultry, and the belief is somewhat prevalent that 

 all hawks and owls are injurious. It is as though the 

 whole human race were to be judged by the crimi- 

 nals found in jails and prisons. It is unfortunate 

 that there should be this misunderstanding regard- 

 ing these birds, because, excepting five or six kinds, 

 they are man's friends, constituting, as they do, 

 about the only natural check now left on these rodent 

 pests. 



Bounties. During years past bounties have been 

 offered in some States on all hawks and owls, and as 

 a result great harm has been done the farmer, who 

 has suffered more severely through the increase of 

 rodent pests which followed the destruction of their 

 enemies. Through ignorance of the economic value 

 of these birds, in 1885 a law was passed in Pennsyl- 

 vania placing a bounty of fifty cents on each hawk 

 and owl. In a few years so many of these birds were 

 killed that there was an increase in the amount of 

 harm done to crops by rodent pests, so that the 

 farmers had the bounty law repealed. Dr. C. Hart 

 Merriam estimated that, as a result of this bounty 

 law and the consequent destruction of about one 

 hundred thousand hawks and owls, the State of 

 Pennsylvania suffered an annual loss to its agricul- 



