What Birds Do for Us 



demning the duck hawk for its villainies upon our 

 wild water -fowl, and that powerful brigand, the 

 goshawk, for audaciously carrying ofi full-grown 

 poultry, rufifed grouse and rabbits, and Cooper's 

 hawk, a deep-dyed chicken stealer, whose aggregate 

 misdeeds are greater 

 than any others (simply 

 because his species is 

 the most numerous) , 

 and his smaller proto- 

 type, the sharp-shinned 

 hawk for destroying 

 little chickens and 

 song-birds, Dr. Fisher, 

 who made an exhaus- 

 tive study of hawks and 

 owls for the Govern- 

 ment, recommends 

 clemency toward all 

 the others. He investi- 

 gated forty birds of 

 prey found within our 

 borders. 



"It would be just 

 as rational to take the 

 standard for the human 

 race from highwaymen 

 and pirates as to judge 

 all hawks by the deeds 

 of a few," he says. 

 "Even when the industrious hawks are observed 

 beating tirelessly back and forth over the harvest 

 fields and meadows, or the owls are seen at dark 



199 



A Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: the 

 horned owl 



