136 



THE RAPTORIAL BIRDS OF IOWA 



main to continue its good offices during the summer months, it does 

 much good during the colder seasons. Although some writers ac- 

 cuse this hawk of killing ducks and other wild fowl, there is nothing 

 in my observations to sustain these statements. Mice seem to be a 

 staple article of diet, and its continuous warfare upon such vermin 

 ought to result in the protection it so much deserves. 



A. K. Fisher reports that "of 49 stomachs examined, 40 contained 

 mice . . ." Captain Bendire regards the records of the nesting of 

 this species in the United States as questionable. 



Fig. 53. Rough-legged Hawk, light phase. 

 Archibuteo lagopus sancti-Johannis (Gmel.). 

 *Allen, J. A., Catalogue of the Birds of Iowa: Geology of Iowa, White, 



Vol. 2, App. B, p. 424, 1870. 

 *Trippe, T. M., Notes on the Birds of Southern Iowa: Proceedings of 



the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. 15, p. 132, 1872. (Deca- 



tur and Mahaska Counties.) 



Warren, B. H., Birds of Pennsylvania, p. 92, 1888. 



Keyes, Charles Rollin, and Williams, H. S., M. D., Preliminary Anno- 

 tated Catalogue of the Birds of Iowa: Proceedings of the Davenport 



Academy of Natural Sciences, Vol. 5, p.' 127, 1888. 

 Jones, Lynds, A List of Birds found in Eastern Jasper and Western 



Poweshiek Counties, Iowa: The Curlew, Vol. I, No. 6, p. 52, March, 



1889. 



Ridgway, R., Ornithology of Illinois, p. 478, 1889. 

 *Kelsey, Carl, Birds of Poweshiek County, Iowa: Ornithologist and 



