XI 
MORE ABOUT HIS FOOD 
Some of the big birds work all the time for 
us. When you see a hawk sitting very still on 
a dead limb, what do you suppose he is doing ? 
A good deal of the time he is looking on the 
ground for a mouse, or a ground squirrel, or a 
rat, or some creature that he likes to eat. 
When he sees one of them move in the grass, 
he flies down and pounces upon it. Thus he 
helps the farmer greatly, for all of these little 
animals destroy crops. 
When it grows dark, hawks stop work and go 
to sleep. Then the owls, who can see better in 
the dusk, come out of the holes where they have 
been half sleeping all day. They hunt the same 
little creatures, most of all rats and mice, which 
like best to run about in the night. 
Perhaps you have heard that hawks and owls 
earry off chickens. Many people who keep 
chickens shoot every hawk and owl they see. 
But if they knew more about them they would 
