703 



rhiladelpbiu taxidermist of my acquaintance who 

 lulled, in one winter, about a hundred of these birds, 

 chiefly Ked-tailed, Red-shouldered and Kough-lef!;ged 

 species, which frequented the meadows in the daytime 

 and at night roosted in neighboring woods. His plan 

 was to go to the woods and, by seeing the droppings 

 under the trees, he could locate places where the 

 birds slept. After having marked these places the 

 man would hide in blinds made of boughs and fallen 

 limbs, brush, etc., and when the birds returned in the 

 evening they were shot. On bright moonlight nights, 

 he informed me, he often killed Hawks by walking 

 from one tree to another which he had previously 

 marked. The stomachs of thirty-five of these Hawks, 

 he thus destroyed in one month, were examined, and, 

 with two exceptions, to-wit: a Red-tail that had re- 

 mains of a chicken and two Cooper's Hawks which 

 had small birds, all of these birds of prey had in their 

 viscera only small rodents. Meadow Mice chiefly, and 

 insects, principally grasshoppers, and a few frogs. 

 Do you think agricultural or game interests were bene 

 fitted by the slaughter of these beneficial birds? 



TRAPPING BIRDS OF PREY. 



Eagles, Hawks and Owls, as well as numerous other 

 kinds (►f birds, can be trapped. The following are 

 some of the most usual means adopted to capture the 

 raptoi'ial birds. 



Biids of prey as well as some predatory mammals 

 ■will often kill poultry or game and devour a portion of 

 it, and then go off and return again to feed upon the 

 remaindei-. A steel trap, fastened by a chain to a 

 large stone, spring pole, or fence rail, and placed on 

 or at one side O'f the slain animal will generally re- 



