USEFUL BIRDS. 9 
always in motion in the daytime, “creeping” over trunks and 
branches on the lookout for food. General color, brown more or 
less streaked with lighter colors; white below; about five and 
one-half inches long; end of tail feathers stiff and pressed against 
bark of tree after the manner of woodpeckers. Bill slightly curved. 
MARSH HAWK (Female). 
(Platesz; Bigy 11.) 
Male and female quite different, both in size and color. Adult 
male nineteen inches long, grayish ahove, the tail being barred with 
blackish; feathers above at base of tail (upper tail coverts) con- 
spicuously white; breast. gray, fading into white on belly, where 
brownish markings are found. The adult female is twenty-two 
inches long, dark brown above, marked on head and neck with 
reddish brown; upper tail coverts as in male, conspicuously white; 
tail darker brown, barred with reddish brown; breast buff, the color 
fading on belly. Nests on the ground in marshes. This is pre- 
eminently a bird of the meadows and prairies, and is often seen 
skimming over the top of the marsh grass hunting its food, at which 
time the white of the upper tail coverts is conspicuous. It eats 
field mice, squirrels, rabbits, grasshoppers, frogs, reptiles, and occa- 
sionally small birds or poultry, but not often. The writer regards 
is as a useful bird to the agriculturist. Out of one hundred and 
twenty-four stomachs examined by the United States Department 
of Agriculture, seven contained poultry or game birds; thirty-four 
contained other birds; fifty-seven contained mice; twenty-two con- 
tained other mammals; seven contained reptiles; two contained 
frogs; fourteen contained insects; the contents of one were un- 
determined, and eight were empty. Dr. B. H. Warren examined 
fourteen stomachs with the following results: Seven had only 
held Gnmiice, in) their “stomachs; three, frogs; two, small birds 
(warblers); one, a few feathers, apparently of a sparrow, and 
fragments of insects; one, a large number of grasshoppers, with 
a small quantity of hair, evidently of a young rabbit. This bird is 
recorded as having been observed in southern Minnesota in 
January. 
KINGBIRD. 
(Plate 2, Fig. 12.) 
This is the policeman of our garden and orchard, bravely attack- 
ing large hawks and crows which might be disposed to do mischief. 
It is a typical flycatcher and consumes an enormous number of 
