MABSH HAWK 279 



marked, and unless you have been warned, you 

 will find it hard to believe him a Hawk, for he is 

 a most distinguished-looking beauty, as pearly 

 gray as a Sea Gull. 



In his 'Hawk and Owl Bulletin,' Doctor 

 Fisher deplores the fact that for its occasional 

 poultry dinner the Marsh Hawk is shot, as he 

 says, at sight, quite " regardless or ignorant of 

 the fact that it preserves an immense quantity of 

 grain, thousands of fruit-trees, and innumerable 

 nests of game birds by destroying the vermin 

 which eat the grain, girdle the trees, and devour 

 the eggs and young of the birds." 



It is " unquestionably one of the most benefi- 

 cial, as it is one of our most abundant Hawks," 

 the doctor states, " and its presence and increase 

 should be encouraged in every way possible, not 

 only by protecting it by law, but by disseminat- 

 ing a knowledge of the benefits it confers. It is 

 probably the most active and determined foe of 

 meadow mice and ground squirrels, destroying 

 greater numbers of these pests than any other 

 species, and this fact alone should entitle it to 

 protection, even if it destroyed no other injurious 

 animals." 



Although the Marsh Hawk is usually seen fly- 

 ing low over the ground, in the spring he imi- 

 tates the Nighthawk, doing his wooing in the sky 

 with many most remarkable flourishes, presumably 

 adapted to the taste of the ladies of the marshes. 



