loS The Wilsox Bulletin — No. 49. 



at once. He always began with the head, picking it clean, 

 and then tearing it off with his bill would crush it at once 

 and devour it, after which the rest of the bird would follow. 

 He alwaj's preferred birds to anything else. The second 

 week in September a Sora was brought to nie. This I let lie 

 for three days, till, in the heat, it had begun to decay and 

 smelled very badly. After he had literally stuffed himself with 

 raw meat, about one pound, I threw this decayed Sora in 

 his cage. He went at it at once and ate it in about five min- 

 utes. This, in my opinion, does not merely show that the 

 Red-tailed. Hawk will eat carrion, and most any bird of prey, 

 when hungry, will do that, but, as he certainly was not hun- 

 gry at the time, that Red-tails prefer birds to other food. 

 Again, I do not like to make a statement to this effect, as there 

 is so much evidence to the contrary (compare: Hawks and 



Owls, by A. K. Fisher, — ), but it certainly agrees with 



my observations in Pike and Scioto Counties, as well 

 as my field observations in Seneca County. On September 

 29th I put a large dead rat in his cage. He looked at it for 

 about ten minutes before touching it, and I hadn't fed him for 

 two days at that. Then he ate the head and the inside, leav- 

 ing the skin, hind legs and tail intact, and would not eat this 

 till the next day, though I did not feed him anything else. 

 This certainly does not show a great fondness for rats and 

 mice. He never went at them with the greed he showed for 

 squirrels and birds. On October 21 and 22 I fed him raw 

 and fried fish, which he ate immediately. So far I have 

 never been able to get him a snake or frogs, but if I can keep 

 him over the winter will try him on these next spring. Thus 

 I cannot consider the Red-tail as harmless as other ornitholo- 

 gists do, yet would not agree with the majority of sportsmen 

 in calling him a harmful sj^ecies, as killing of .squirrels is not a 

 detriment, but a beneficial .service. From a utilitarian stand- 

 point, I can only hope for the extermination of the squirrels, 

 especially the Red Squirrel, though not [from an aesthetic or 

 sentimental standpoint. 



