144 



THE OOLOGIST 



Killing the Hawks and Owls. 



Not long since there was a display 

 in Lacon (Illinois) in the window of a 

 department store, a splendid specimen 

 of Barred Owl which had been 

 thoughtlessly killed by a citizen of this 

 town, who did not know that in so 

 doing he had destroyed one of man's 

 best friends, and that in so doing, he 

 had laid himself liable to a fine of a 

 large amount for violating the laws oi 

 the United States. And this law may 

 yet be enforced against him. The bird 

 destroyed never injures poultry. 



Not long since the Government of 

 the United States, at a very large ex- 

 pense, made an exhaustive investiga- 

 tion into the food of the various Hawks 

 and Owls of the United States, and 

 after an examination of the contents of 

 more than four thousand stomachs of 

 these birds, killed in various parts 

 of the United States, issued a book en- 

 titled "The Hawks and Owls of North 

 America," and in that book each spe- 

 cies of both these families of birds 

 was taken up and treated separately 

 and the analysis of the contents of 

 the stomachs of each of the 4200 spe- 

 cimens was set forth and the Barred 

 Owl was given a clean bill of health 

 as an entirely beneficial, harm.less and 

 non-destructive bird. 



A few days ago, driving from Peoria 

 to Lacon, passing the place of one 

 Herbert Bischel near Spring Bay, in 

 Woodford Co. the writer saw i^ang- 

 ing to the barbed wire fence, the dead 

 body of a Red-tailed Hawk, another of 

 the farmer's best friends, that had 

 been thoughtlessly, perhaps, ignorant- 

 ly killed by someone and hung on the 

 fence, who supposed he had done a 

 public service in destroying a 

 "Chicken Hawk." This bird like the 

 Barred Owl, is a beneficial bird and 

 should never be killed under any con- 

 ditions. 



True it is that the Red-tail when 



driven by stress of hunger and scar- 

 city of his natural food, will occa- 

 sionally take a chicken. But the con- 

 clusion reached by the Government in 

 its investigation was to the effect that 

 for each chicken taken, this bird de- 

 stroyed not less than one hundred field 

 mice and many gophers and ground 

 moles, in addition to its more desired 

 food, the striped ground squirrel. And 

 this bird, like the Barred Owl, is pro- 

 tected by law, and the killer of the 

 bird that hung on Herbert Bischel's 

 fence is likewise liable to a heavy 

 fine for violating the law in killing this 

 bird, and it may be, will sometime be 

 called upon to face Uncle Sam's legal 

 department for so doing. 



Most of the killing of this class of 

 birds is the result of the densest sort 

 of ignorance. A failure or refusal on 

 the part of the killer to inform him- 

 self as to the character of the birds. 



There are in this part of the coun- 

 try, but two birds belonging to the 

 Hawks and Owls that should be de- 

 stroyed. One, the large Great Horned 

 Owl, the largest owl we have, with 

 large round, yellow eyes and ear tufts 

 that are called "horns." The other, 

 the long slim, bluish-gray colored 

 Hawk with feathers marked some- 

 what like a Barred Plymouth Rock 

 Chicken, with a long slim tail, known 

 as the Cooper Hawk. Other than 

 these, all the Hawks and Owls of this 

 part of the country are beneficial, and 

 should be protected; as they live al- 

 most entirely upon man's enemies, 

 vermin of some kind, mice, rats, moles, 

 ground squirrels and the like. 



The Country Gentleman of October 

 30, 1915, contains an article by R. W. 

 Schufeldt, one of the most prominent 

 of American bird students, a resident 

 of Washington, D. C, upon this same 

 subject which is as follows: 



DON'T SHOOT THE OWLS 



They do Untold Good as Destroyers of 



Vermin. 



