THE DESTRUCTIVE RODENT 



plague of rats. Then the governing body hastily re- 

 pealed the Act and passed another, offering bounties 

 for the destruction of rats, mice, and other small 

 rodents ; but the sums paid out were so great that the 

 legislature was hastily summoned, and the Act was 

 repealed because the State could not afford this 

 financial drain which threatened to render it bankrupt. 



Later, Nevada, California, Wyoming, Utah, and 

 several other States were also smitten as heavily as 

 Pennsylvania and Montana for their sins in slaying 

 their friends the hawks and owls — allies which were 

 performing services worth millions sterling annually 

 and asking nothing in return, except an occasional 

 chicken when one of their kind was on the verge of 

 starvation or which had a nestful of hungry youngsters, 

 and the supply of rats and mice had temporarily proved 

 insufficient for their needs. 



Riding with a farmer one day, we saw a large hawk 

 drop to the ground and rise with a partridge in its 

 talons. My friend shot at it and missed, but the hawk 

 dropped its prey. On examination it proved to be 

 a coqui partridge, blind with chicken-pox. 



During twenty-five years' museum experience I 

 have examined the crops of a large number of hawks 

 of various species. The predominating food was rats, 

 mice, and grasshoppers. Only now and then the 

 remains of birds were found. The crops often 

 contained a curious assortment of creatures, chiefly 

 locusts, grasshoppers, crickets, termites (white ants), 

 and snakes. When locusts are abundant, hawks feed 

 almost exclusively on them. 



vol. i. 177 I2 



