462 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1913. 



as one of the plagues of the Book of Exodus. Then the legislature 

 passed a law offering bounties for the destruction of these four- 

 footed pests. During six months of 1887 such large sums were paid 

 out in bounties for the destruction of small rodents — a work that 

 the hawks and owls had previously done free of charge — that a 

 special session of the legislature was called to repeal the act, lest it 

 should bankrupt the State. 



In 1907 Nevada went through a very trying experience with mice, 

 while Utah, Wyoming, California, and several Statas farther east 

 have all had occasion to bitterly rue the day that they shot their 

 hawks and owls. 



But the destruction of small rodents is not the only function of 

 rapacious birds in the economy of nature. Several species are 

 voracious insect feeders. Nor is this all. It is well known that when 

 small insectivorous birds increase abnormally in numbers they, too, 

 became a pest. Hawks and owls materially assist those other agencies 

 of nature which act as a check on the undue increase of small birds. 

 If rapacious birds were rigorously protected in this country we 

 should have fewer complaints of the damage done by sparrows. 



Birds of prey, if unmolested, not only prevent the overproduction 

 of small birds, but they also confer a salutory benefit on each species 

 on which they prey by checking the propagation of wealmess or 

 disease by killing off the sicldy and most unfit individuals, for these 

 are the most easily seen and the most readily captured. This is particu- 

 larly true of game fowl, and one of the most plausible hypotheses 

 explanatory of the occasional outbreaks of disease among grouse has 

 been the removal of this corrective by ignorant gamekeepers. 



Yet it is my belief that nothing but a miracle will ever make these 

 men see the error of their ways. 



Some years ago, when lying in the sweet-smelling heather on a 

 mountain side in Scotland, I pleaded for the life of the hawk before 

 one of its executioners. The gamekeeper listened in silence until my 

 address to the jury, so to speak, was concluded. Then he said, 

 " Ye've a cold i' the heid." I did not see the relevancy of this re- 

 mark, but I nodded assent. After a pause, he added, " Ah, weel ; ye 

 canna complain. The cold aye attacks the weakest place first." 



Kaffirs say, " He who kills a hawk must be put to death." 



THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE WHITE HERON. 



The destruction of the white heron for its scapular plumes has 

 robbed half the world of a bird which is most useful to man. It 

 never touches grain, but feeds solely near water and over damp 

 ground, the breeding places of innumerable batrachians, small crusta- 

 ceans, and pestiferous insects, all of which directly or indirectly in- 

 juriously affect crops in the neighborhood. The presence of the 



