THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC ORNITHOLOGY. 23 



suits published in 1893 in a bulletin entitled ' Hawks and 

 Owls of the United States, 1 illustrated by twenty-six colored 

 plates. Of the seventy- five species and subspecies which 

 occur in America north of Mexico, only six were found to be 

 injurious, while several were shown to be beneficial. About 

 the time the work was begun bounties on birds of prey 

 were, or had recently been, offered by Colorado, Indiana, 

 New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West 

 Virginia. At present not only have all the important State 

 bounties been withdrawn (the acts still in force are mainly 

 local), but several States have adopted protective measures. 

 New Hampshire and Ohio began with eagles, Rhode Island 

 with fish-hawks, and New York and Minnesota with owls. 

 Pennsylvania and Alabama now protect all except the six or 

 seven really injurious species, while during the present year 

 Utah has gone so far as to make it unlawful to kill any hawks 

 or owls. Such changes show the gradual appreciation of the 

 value of these really useful birds. 



u In the case of the crow nearly one thousand stomachs were 

 examined, and the charges of pulling up sprouting corn, of 

 injuring corn in the milk, of destroying fruit, and of destroy- 

 ing eggs of poultry and wild birds were all sustained. But it 

 was found that corn in the milk formed only three per cent, 

 of the total food, and most of the corn destroyed was waste 

 grain ; that the destruction of fruit and eggs was trivial, w r hile, 

 on the other hand, many noxious insects and mice were 

 eaten. The verdict was therefore rendered in favor of the 

 crow, since, on the whole, the bird seemed to do more good 

 than harm. 



"Similar studies of crow blackbirds (based on about two 

 thousand three hundred stomachs) and woodpeckers (in- 

 cluding nearly seven hundred stomachs), published in 1895, 

 showed that these birds were decidedly beneficial. Only one 

 of the seven species of woodpeckers examined the yellow- 

 bellied exhibited any questionable traits, namely, a fond- 



