Widmann — A Preliminary Catalog of the Birds of Missouri. 19 



Birds which nest in thickets can be assisted by planting shrubs 

 and bushes and allowing them to grow thick enough for a bird 

 to hide its nest there. Such birds once attracted will return, 

 like those which build in holes, to the same place every year. 

 Another way of attracting birds to one's premises is by planting 

 wild fruit trees, especially Wild Cherry and Red Mulberry trees 

 wherever shade and ornamental trees are wanted. It is not only 

 a boon for our little feathered friends, but it keeps them away 

 from our cultivated fruit, for birds need fruit of some kind for 

 their diet, and, being deprived by man of their former wild 

 fruit, they seek a substitute in our orchards, gardens and vine- 

 yards. 



Our new game, bird and fish protection law of 1905 is as good 

 as can be desired at present, but the enforcement of such a law 

 depends so much on public sentiment that it remains to be seen 

 how much good it will do. A great mistake has been made in 

 framing Section 8 in which the word Chickenhawk is used among 

 birds excluded from protection. Ornithologists do not recognize 

 any particular species under that name, while hunters and others 

 call every large hawk a chickenhawk. By thus inserting the 

 word chickenhawk among birds to be killed, our legislators have 

 doomed the fate of our most useful mice-destroyers, namely 

 the Marsh Hawk, the Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, Broad-winged, 

 and Rough-legged Hawks. All these are commonly known as 

 chickenhawks, though they hardly ever catch chickens, while 

 the Cooper's and Sharp-shinned Hawks, which really do the 

 damage, are but seldom seen, because they hide in the woods 

 and appear and disappear on their foraging expeditions with such 

 lightning rapidity that they fall seldom to the gun of the hunter 

 who takes pride in killing the slow mouse-hunting species which 

 frequent the fields and perch on fence-posts. The proper thing 

 to do would be to except from protection only the individual 

 caught in the act of stealing, because it cannot be expected that 

 anyone not a trained ornithologist can at first sight distinguish 

 the harmful from the useful species. 



Section 8 excepts from protection also the Goshawk and the 

 Great Horned Owl, but the first is a very rare transient visitant, 

 and the latter would never catch a chicken in a cold winter night, 

 if our farmers would properly care for their fowls and keep them 

 in hen-houses during the winter nights. Crows and English 

 Sparrows should, I think, only be destroyed where they do actual 

 damage, but not on general principle. In most parts of our 



