82 BIRDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA 
over meadows and weed fields in search of small rodents. In 
proportion to its size the wings and tail are longer than in other 
Hawks. The nest is always placed on the ground in tall grass 
or buck-brush thickets. This Hawk should never be killed, and 
everyone, farmers in particular, should become familiar with it 
and aid in its protection. Mice and gophers comprise the bulk 
of its food. Of 124 stomachs examined by the Biological Sur- 
vey, Department of Agriculture, forty-five per cent had fed on 
mice, eighteen per cent on other small mammals, twenty-eight per 
cent on reptiles, frogs and insects, and only a low percentage on 
poultry and small birds. In 1910 a pair nested within thirty 
rods of a farm house in Perkins County. Their family con- 
sisted of five young, and as far as known not a single member of 
the poultry yard was molested. 
One should not be surprised if the young birds, while 
beginning to feed themselves, and with that ravenous appetite 
which all young creatures have, should sometimes take a young 
Chicken. This might be done occasionally in- the immediate 
neighborhood of their nest, when the fields have been searched 
for mice and gophers during the summer by the parent Hawks. 
However, the harm they do is negligible compared with the 
vast amount they save the farmers each season. 
332. SHARP-SHINNED Hawk (Accipiter velox.) 
One of our smaller Hawks, measuring only from eleven 
to thirteen inches in length, and not as common as the Marsh . 
Hawk. The female is longer than the male but the extra length 
of her tail makes the difference. Back dark slate; head and 
neck usually more or less streaked with brown and white; under 
parts including wings barred with white and rufous; tail with 
four bars. Of the stomachs examined by the Biological Survey, 
Department of Agriculture, ninety-four per cent of the contents 
showed small birds and young poultry. This Hawk should be 
destroyed with the same care that we use in protecting the 
Marsh Hawk. But no Hawk should ever be killed until one is 
sure what species he is killing. The destructive Hawks are the 
exception, the beneficial ones the rule. 
333. CoopEr’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperi.) “CHICKEN Hawk.” 
This Hawk is found quite generally over the State. Its 
