ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR BIRDS 79 



that will live longest because it knows best how to 

 hide and to escape when attacked. It is now esti- 

 mated by a Connecticut state game commissioner 

 that during 1913 the 27,000 licensed gunners of 

 Connecticut killed 60,000 ruffed grouse. 



Hawks and Owls. It is impossible to complete 

 a discussion of the North American birds useful to 

 man without an adequate reference to the services 

 of certain birds of prey. 



Men who never have fought a numerous and 

 aggressive population of rats and mice do not know 

 the bitterness of that unequal warfare ; but 



" The toad beneath the harrow knows 

 Exactly where each tooth-point goes !" 



The rat works while men sleep; and everything 

 that he can chew is open to destruction by him. 

 When grain, fruit and vegetables fail, or pall upon 

 the murine palate, the rat joyously attacks eggs, 

 poultry and meat supplies generally. The making 

 of farm products safe from hungry rats is a mad- 

 dening proposition. What, then, should be the 

 attitude of every farmer toward a bird like the barn 

 owl, that lives on mice and rats, and is abundantly 

 able, by nature, to beat the nocturnal destroyers at 

 their own game? We would say in answer that 

 Strix flammea, not Ceres, should be the patron 

 saint of the farmer, and that in his eyes the barn owl 

 should be ten times more sacred than the peacock is 

 to a Hindoo. 



