Birds of Beak and Talon. 251 



known to the farmer, who usually considers them as ene- 

 mies of the poultry, and he seeks to kill them whenever 

 he meets them. Even writers of otherwise undoubted 

 accuracy have disseminated views not supported by suflS- 

 cient data, and have thus placed the majority of the birds 

 in this group in an unfavorable light. Science has at last 

 investigated the food-habits of the Raptores of America, 

 with results so satisfactory that some of the supposed 

 enemies of agriculture are now recognized as active allies. 

 Most of the rapacious -birds are of immense utility in the 

 destruction of small noxious rodents and other vermin, 

 and the wise agriculturist -should submit to the occasional 

 appropriation of a chicken by an ally which destroys foes 

 of a class beyond the reach of other agencies. 



The larger hawks, or true buzzards, which sail lazily 

 over the barn-yard and occasion a panic among the fowls, 

 and which are consequently persecuted by the well-mean- 

 ing but mistaken farmer, seldom capture a chicken, as 

 their approach is made known by the commotion among 

 the brood, and the fowls have time to run to cover. The 

 smaller hawks, or falcons, are the real enemies and success- 

 ful raiders of the poultry-yard. They dart swiftly into 

 the yard before their approach is noticed, and snatching 

 up the most promising of the chicks, escape in safety. 

 They are rarely detected, much less caught, while the 

 lazy buzzard, which comes sailing along at that juncture, 

 receives the maledictions of the farmer and his wife. The 

 larger so-called "chicken hawks" are classed either in 

 the beneficial or in the neutral groups by the thorough 

 and systematic investigations of the Department of Agri- 

 culture. The guilty parties are the " little chicken hawks," 

 described as Cooper's hawk, the sharp shinned hawk, and 

 other less common species. The owls have also hereto- 

 fore been thoughtlessly placed in the category of enemies 

 of agriculture, and have experienced the persecution 

 falling to the lot of the Raptores; but the investigation 

 mentioned shows that only the larger owls have a taste 

 for poultry, and that the screech owl, the long-eared owl, 

 and the short-eared owl are valuable auxiliaries of the 

 farmer in the destruction of noxious insects and vermin. 



