Birps OF PREY. 167 
bird to all who live in the country. So eager, at 
times, are these hawks for mice, that they tear open 
their run-ways in the grass and so find them when 
otherwise they would have escaped. The marsh- 
hawk does not confine himself to the lowlands. 
They scour our upland fields for mice and so doa 
vast amount of good, for there can be no question 
but that our clover-fields sadly suffer from an excess 
of this pest, a condition that would not obtain were 
it not for the senseless prejudice against snakes. 
Dr. Coues says,— 
“The Marsh Harrier belongs among the ‘ignoble’ birds of the 
falconers, but is neither a weakling nor a coward. . . . Still, under 
ordinary circumstances, its spirit is hardly commensurate with its 
physique, and its quarry is humble.” 
The Sharp-shinned Hawk is not likely to have 
any friends among the farmers, and at this we can- 
not wonder. Its impudence would be against it even 
if it did no harm, but its fondness for young poultry 
is undeniable. I was told the following by an old 
lady some years ago, but do not believe it, as the 
imagination of the narrator was known to be lively. 
She said that finding a brood of young chickens 
some distance from the house, she gathered them up 
in her apron and was about to start home, when a 
sharp-shinned hawk—a cunnin’ little blue hawk, she 
called it—dashed down and took one from her lap. 
These small hawks vary greatly in numbers in 
some localities. I have known them to be very abun- 
dant and to work sad havoc among the small birds 
of the neighborbood, and then to become very rare, 
almost none being seen for a year or more. While 
