9 



the few incursions made at irregular periods upon isolated hen roosts. 

 Where a single towl is thus lost, a thousand mice pay the penalty of 

 their lives to the same owl. 



The nocturnal habits of the owls render their services far more 

 beneficial than may be accurately ascertained. 



In regard to the hawks their reputation is much exaggerated so far 

 as their injurious propensity is concerned, yet when truthful evidence 

 is placed in the scales the beneficial services of the hawks will prepon- 

 derate in a most satisfactory manner. 



Certain species of the diurnal birds of prey are well known to feed 

 almost exclusively upon small rodents, and in fact differing but little 

 from the owls in regard to thtir food. Two or three species of hawks 

 [those belonging to the genus Archibuteo] are notoriously the best 

 diurnal mouse-catchers of all birds. Their habits to soar over the 

 level tracts devoted to grasses and and search for their food are so 

 well known that further consideration of them is but repetition of 

 established facts. The bolder species of hawks so rarely commit dep 

 redations upon the farm-yard fowls that these instances are, without 

 doubt, the result of an individual predeliction for which the entire 

 family should not be branded. The number of rabbits and mice 

 which the hawks annually destroy is simply incredible, as any really 

 observant person will admit. 



In my own opinion the destruction of the hawks and owls within 

 the State of Pennsylvania will, ere many years, result in an incalcula- 

 ble injury to the farmer, who will be overrun with hordes of mice, 

 which he will be powerless to limit, as their reproductiveness, when 

 undisturbed, progresses with astonishing rapidity. 



It would, in my opinion, be a wise measure to have the act relating 

 to the alleged noxious birds totally repealed. Very truly yours, 



LUCIEN M. TURNER, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. March 3, 1886. 



HAWK'S FOOD. 



From a report entitled "Diurnal Rapacious Birds" [with special 

 reference to Chester county. Pa. ] prepared by B. H. Warren and 

 published in the annual report for 1S83 of the Pennsylvania State 

 Board of Agricuhure, is taken the following reference to the stomach 

 examinations of the species of hawks most commonly found in Penn- 

 sylvania: 



The Red-Tailed Hawk. Buteo borealis. My examinatioti of one 

 hundred and two birds of this species, revealed in eighty-one chiefly 

 mice and small quadrupeds, also some few small birds; nine, chick- 

 ens ; three, quail ; two, rabbits ; one, ham skin ; one, part of a 

 skunk one, a red squirrel ; one. a gray squirrel ; three, makes. 



The Red-Shouldered Hawk. Buteo lineatus. Of thirty-six exam- 

 inations which I have made of this species, twenty-three showed mice 



