THE HAWKS, EAGLES, KITES, AND VULTURES. 213 



from Cuba to Alaska. It is most abundant in the prairie 

 States. The nest is placed upon the ground in marshy situ- 

 ations, where grass and sedges help conceal it. From four to 

 six young are reared in each brood. This is one of the most 

 useful of the hawks and deserves man's protection. "Its 

 food," writes Dr. Fisher, " consists largely of small rodents, 

 such as meadow-mice, half-grown squirrels, rabbits, and 

 ground-squirrels. In fact, so extensively does it feed upon 

 the last-named animals, that the writer rarely has examined 

 a stomach from the West which did not contain their remains. 

 In addition to the above, it preys upon lizards, frogs, snakes, 

 insects, and birds ; of the latter, the smaller ground-dwelling 

 species are usually taken. When hard pressed it is said to 

 feed on offal and carrion ; and in spring and fall when water- 

 fowl are abundant it occasionally preys upon the dead and 

 wounded birds left by gunners." The stomach of a speci- 

 men shot at Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1892, when grass- 

 hoppers w r ere very abundant, which we examined, was full 

 of these insects, showing that the bird was doing what it 

 could to check the outbreak. In the Southern rice-fields 

 these birds do good service in scaring away the flocks of bob- 

 olinks. The marsh hawk is the farmer's friend, and its rare 

 visits to the poultry-yard may well be excused on account of 

 the enormous number of vermin it destroys. 



THE EAGLES. 



BALD EAGLES are .usually seen about the coast and larger 

 inland waters, where they are able to find a supply of such 

 food as best suits their taste. 



In the North they live almost exclusively upon fish, show- 

 ing little or no regard for quality or condition, generally de- 

 vouring any sort of fish that may come in their way, and are 

 seemingly as well satisfied with a half-decayed subject washed 

 up by the waves as with one freshly killed. In the Southern 

 States, where water-fowl congregate in vast numbers during 



