234 ELEMENTS OF AGRICULTURE 



being the larger. These birds are very quiet and shy, 

 darting suddenly on their prey from some hiding-place. 

 Karely are they seen soaring over fields or heard calling. 

 There are two other bird-eating hawks sometimes seen 

 in the country, the goshawk and the duck-hawk, but, 

 fortunately, they are few in numbers. These four kinds 

 of hawk are harmful, as they destroy many useful birds, 

 and do little, if any, good. All the other hawks and 

 owls known in the United States do good as well as 

 harm. Some kinds are entirely beneficial, others prin- 

 cipally beneficial, and still others in which the beneficial 

 and harmful qualities are about equally balanced. To 

 recognize these many kinds of birds requires more time 

 and study than the average farmer can devote to it. 

 How then can he punish the guilty without the innocent 

 suffering ? Chapman says : " The only safe way to give 

 justice to whom justice is due is to kill only the hawks 

 we actually see taking our chickens, and not murder 

 indiscriminately every member of the hawk family."* 



There are only a few owls known in this country that 

 ever disturb poultty, and they also do much good in 

 destroying many mice and rats. The owls work only 

 at night, and when poultry are provided with a home 

 they are perfectly safe from this bird. 



220. Value to the Farmer of Birds of Prey. — In the 

 report for 1886, Dr. C. H. Merriam, chief of the 

 Biographical Survey of the Department of Agriculture, 

 gives some interesting figures showing the value of birds 

 of prey in Pennsylvania. " On the 23d of June, 1885," 



♦Report of Conn . Board of Agr. , 1899, p. 103. 



