Papers on the Destruction of Native Biids. 169 



supposition lias been that the hawks were the enemy of man; that 

 they destroyed his poultry, particularly the smaller kinds, and 

 were of no possible good or utility. Hence, one of the earliest 

 recollections of the country boy is that the announcement of the 

 presence of a hawk served to bring out the shot-gun, or caused the 

 neighbor's to be borrowed, and immediate war upon that bird was 

 the order of the hour. 



Where ignorance is bliss is it not folly to be wise? Well, 

 sometimes ; but often it is folly not to be wise, as the bliss of igno- 

 rance soon changes into the sorrow and mortification of loss. It 

 appears that on June 23, 1885, the Assembly of Pennsylvania 

 passed an act, for the destruction, among other things, of hawks 

 and owls, and offered fifty cents per head for every hawk and owl, 

 except the Acadian screech or barn owl. 



The Westchester (Pa.) Microscopical Society took the matter 

 in hand. They state that Dr. B. Harry Warren, Ornithologist of 

 the Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, had devoted several 

 years to the collection, dissection and examination of birds; and 

 that "all of the committee from observation and experience have 

 believed that all of the birds denounced in the law above quoted, 

 with rare exceptions, have been found to be the best friends of the 

 farmer." The committee further state that lest any of the com- 

 mittee might have been mistaken, " they have corresponded with 

 the best ornithologists in the country, connected with the Smithso- 

 nian Institute, to-wit : Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Ornithologist of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture," viz. : Of the Division 

 of Economic Ornithology, whose special business it is to under- 

 stand the relation and iises of birds to agriculiure, and to each 

 other, and to the welfare of man; "Robert Ridgway, Curator of 

 the Department of Birds, United States National Museum ; Dr. 

 Leonard Stejneger, Assistant Curator of the same department; H. 

 W. Henshaw, of the Bureau of Ethnology, also a collector of 

 birds for the Smithsonian Institute and connected with the late 

 Wheeler survey of the territories ; and Lucien M. Turner, a col- 

 lector of birds, etc., for the Smithsonian Institute for the last 

 twelve years." The answers of these parties are annexed to the 

 report and speak for themselves, and go to corroborate the report, 

 viz., that "the hawks and owls are of great benefit to the 

 farmer, and render him far greater service than injury, and that it 

 is unwise to select any of them for destruction." 



