DESCRIPTIONS OF THE RAPACIOUS BIRDS OF ONTO. 
BY JOHN KIRKPATRICK. 
The greater part of this paper was originally written for and published 
in the columns of the “Ohio Farmer” for 1858 and 1859, as the first por- 
tion of a “Natural History of the Birds of Ohio;” the intention being to 
continue these articles until all our known species were described. The 
idea of doing this occurred to me in consequence of a conversation with 
my friend—Ohio’s veteran naturalist—Prof. J. P. Kirtland, in which he 
expressed a wish that some one ere long would write a description of our 
birds, as in consequence of the changes produced by man, many species 
were becoming scarce, while a few that in the first days of the settlement 
of our State were comparatively numerous had ceased to visit us, and 
could not strictly be included in our fauna; and as such changes were 
still going on in an accelerated degree, in twenty years hence no person 
could write a history of the feathered inhabitants of our woods, prairies 
and waters, with a positive knowledge of all the species being indigenous. 
Nearly all the species mentioned are described from specimens in the 
Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of. Cleveland, and for de- 
scriptions of such as I had no specimens to refer to, I am indebted to the 
works of Wilson, Audubon, and the ‘Synopsis of the Birds of America” 
in Cassin’s “Birds of California and Texas.” JI am also much indebted to 
Prof. J. P. Kirtland, and Rufus K. Winslow, Esq., of Cleveland, for much 
valuable information. 
The value of a knowledge of natural history does not alone consist in 
the accumulation of a mass of facts in relation to this subject by the mere 
scientist, but in the application of this knowledge to practical purposes. 
The savant may know that a certain animal feeds on some plant, or other 
animal injurious to the produce of the farm or garden; but unless this in- 
formation is disseminated among farmers and gardeners it is of little use, 
as it too often occurs that the popular idea of a thing is far from being cor- 
