Red-shouldered Hawk 215 



no one cares to make a close study of their 

 yoiing. 



RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 



Called also: Hen Hawk; Chicken Hawk; Win- 

 ter Hawk 



Let any one say " Hawk'' to the average far- 

 mer and he looks for his gun. For many years 

 it was supposed that every member of the hawk 

 family was a villain and fair game, but the 

 white searchlight of science shows us that 

 most of the tribe are the farmers' alHes, which, 

 with the owls, share the task of keeping in check 

 the mice, moles, gophers, snakes, and the larger 

 insect pests. Nature keeps her vast domain 

 patrolled by these vigilant watchers by day 

 and by night. Guns may well be turned on 

 those blood-thirsty fiends in feathers. Cooper's 

 hawk, the sharp-shinned hawk, and the goshawk, 

 that not only eat our poultry, but every song 

 bird they can catch: the law of the survival of 

 the fittest might well be enforced with lead in 

 their case. But do let us protect our friends, 

 the more heavily built and slow-fiying hawks 

 with the red tails and red shoulders, among 

 other alHes in our ceaseless war against farm 



vermin ! 



In the court of last appeal to which all our 



