of land birds, and it feeds to some extent on mice, shrews, frogs, lizards and 

 insects. 



Its destnictiveness is emphasized, but the folly of classing all Hawks and 

 Owls together as injurious is shown, by an experience at my home at W'areham, 

 Mass. In 1906, a pair of Screech Owls built their nest and reared their young in 

 a box that we put up for them' in a pine grove. This grove was a noted Robin 

 roost and many birds nested in the vicinity. During the season the Owls killed 

 one Robin, a Red-winged Blackbird and several Bluejays, but they subsisted 

 chiefly on mice, and fed their young mainly with mice. The smaller birds in- 

 creased in numbers during the ( )wls' stay ( possibly on account of the consequent 

 reduction in mice and Jays). All the smaller birds seemed to have entered on an 

 era of prosperity, and they were more numerous on the farm in 1907 than in 

 1906. In 1908 we were away until July. The Owls had disappeared, and a pair 

 of Sharp-shinned Hawks had a nestful of young in the grove. During July and 

 August these Hawks so harried and destroyed the birds of the neighborhood that 

 practically all were killed or driven away, except two pairs of Song Sparrows and 

 a pair of Robins near the house. For the first time in our experience, the Robin 

 roost, which was formerly haunted by hundreds if not thousands of Robins in 

 summer, was now deserted, and the cries of the Hawks were about the only bird 

 notes heard in the grove. The contrast between the effect produced by these Owls 

 and that caused by the Hawks was so marked as to leave no room for doubt 

 regarding the utility of the Screech Owl and the harmfulness of the Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk 



With the increase of game preserves, in this country, and the increased de- 

 .struction of vermin, the Sharp-shinned Hawk must gradually disappear, for the 

 game-keeper is this Hawk's inveterate enemy. Let us hope that the useful and 

 comparatively harmless Hawks and Owls may not suffer from the game-keeper's 

 activity, or for the faults of the three species of true bird hawks, but that such 

 discrimination may be used by the game-keeper, the farmer, and the sportsman, 

 that the real culprits will be the only sufferers. 



555 



