274 BULLETIN 16 7, UNITED STATES NATIONAL IMUSEUM 



and insects. Seldom or never does it take birds. Dr. A. K. Fisher 

 (1893) gives a table showing the results of examinations of 49 stom- 

 achs of this bird. Forty contained mice — -nearly all meadow mice — 

 and two contained rabbits, one a gopher and one a weasel. One 

 contained a lizard and TO insects, and four were empty. Junius 

 Henderson (1927) quotes various observers and their stomach exami- 

 nations and finds no record of bird remains. Field mice, so destruc- 

 tive to young orchards, were by far the most abundant. In one case 

 the stomach was "filled with grasshoppers", and the latter pests are 

 eagerly devoured by this hawk. In the North, lemmings constitute 

 the chief of its diet. 



E. S. Cameron (1907) says that in Custer and Dawson Counties, 

 Mont., prairie dogs are the favorite food of this hawk, which, how- 

 ever, "is becoming verj^ scarce from traps and poison put out for 

 wolves." Aretas A. Saunders (1911) found that in Gallatin County, 

 Mont., the roughleg feeds largely on pocket gophers. Huey (1924) 

 found in the stomach of a bird taken in California an adult female 

 pocket gopher and six grasshoppers. M. P. Skinner writes from 

 the Yellowstone National Park that "the food consists mostly of 

 mice and carrion" and adds ground squirrels to the list of rodents. 

 I have found the fur and bones of brown rats in the pellets of this 

 bird at Ipswich, Mass. 



W. A. Smith, writing from Lyndonville, N. Y., communicates 

 the following interesting note about the specimens of this hawk re- 

 ceived by his son, a taxidermist: "In each case a careful examination 

 of the stomachs revealed nothing but field mice, so it would seem 

 that they are a very beneficial bird to the farmer. However, one 

 which we received alive and only slightly wounded in one wing 

 has been kept alive for several months and will eat sparroAvs and 

 starlings greedily, as well as dead chickens, hens, or any animal. 

 Mice and small birds are devoured nearly whole and the bones, 

 feathers, and fur disgorged in the form of pellets." This last ob- 

 servation contradicts the erroneous statement that hawks and owls 

 pluck their bird victims so thoroughly before eating that the absence 

 of feathers in the pellets does not exclude birds from their dietary. 



Although rodents constitute the chief and generally the only food 

 of this hawk, j^et the prejudice against hawks is so great, and the 

 belief is so general that the larger the hawk the more damage it 

 does to poultry, game, and other birds, that it is difficult to persuade 

 the average gunner, farmer, or gamekeeper that the rough-legged 

 hawk is a friend of the agriculturalist and sportsman and not his 

 enemy. In April 1914, when I was staying at the heath-hen reser- 

 vation at Marthas Vineyard, a rough-legged hawk was shot by the 

 English gamekeeper in charge, who stated his belief that the bird 

 had been feeding on the heath-hen chicks and probably on the sit- 



