How many mice each bird would take on the average each day would be difficult 

 to state exactly, but it is safe to assume that at least six would be required. Now 

 multiply that by the vast army of these hawks that resort to this Province and 

 the total number of mice destroyed would be amazing; and then against this good 

 work constantly going on there is no damage to be set off. Not one instance, in 

 thirty years' observation of this bird's habits, has ever come to the writer's know- 

 ledge of their having attacked a single domestic fowl. It does sometimes take a 

 meal off a dead duck or other bird it may find lying in the inarches, but it is 

 doubtful if it ever kills for itself a bird of any kind, at any rate in this Province. 

 Every farmer and every sportsman in the land should do his utmost for the pro- 

 tection of this bird. Unfortunately they are constantly destroyed by persons 

 who are ignorant of the good they do, and thousands are killed every autumn by 

 mischievious people who must shoot at everything the}' see that has life in it. If 

 people who wantonly shoot hawks would sometimes look at the stomach contents 

 of the birds they kill they would soon be convinced of the wrong they were 

 doing and would perhaps exercise sufficient common sense to refrain from con- 

 tinuing the evil practice. 



For the sake of brevity the Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, and 

 Broad-winged Hawk may b^ considered together. These three common species 

 are usually known as " Hen Hawks." Why however, it would be difficult to say. 

 They are all fairly large, slow, heavy flying birds, whose food consists principally 

 of mice, squirrels, toads, frogs and snakes ; very rarely do they ever take a bird 

 of any kind. In fact it would be extremely difficult for them to do so, unless the 

 bird was very young, or injured seriously. They will, when pressed by hunger, 

 feed on carrion, but the staple article of diet with them is meadow mice and 

 squirrels, varied, as before stated, by toads, frogs and snakes, besides grasshoppers 

 and other insects. 



I have specially omitted from this group, to which it really belongs, the 

 Rough -legged Hawk. This is done purposeiy, because the great value of the 

 species to the farmer should be particularly pointed out, the bird having been 

 most unjustly persecuted. It is the largest of the Canadian hawks, and one that 

 deserves the greatest consideration and protection from every man having an 

 interest in agriculture. It can be safely said that this so-called " Hen-Hawk " 

 has never killed a head of poultry at any time, nor do they ever kill birds of any 

 sort. During the fall of 1895 these hawks were very abundant in southern 

 Ontario and large numbers were killed. I obtained all the bodies I could for the 

 purpose of investigating the contents of their stomachs, and I spent much time 

 in watching their habits whilst feeding. All day long, every day from the first of 

 October of that year to November 28th, the birds were constantly passing slowly 

 along through southern Ontario, feeding as they went, and not one fowl was taken 

 or attacked by them anywhere, so far as I could learn, and I made enquiries from 

 poultry keepers wherever I could. In all, 32 specimens were examined by me, 

 and the result corroborated my experience during the last thirty years. In one 

 stomach I found a frog, in another the flesh of a musk rat taken from a pile of 

 bodies of these creatures which had been thrown together hi Ashbridge's Marsh. 

 Another stomach was filled with large grasshoppers, and the rest contained mice, 

 and nothing but mice, or traces of them, ranging in quantity from a little fur and 

 a few bones to seven whole ones. From this it can be judged whether or not the 

 Rough-legged Hawk is the friend of the farmer. 



The attention of the Department of Agriculture at Washington was some 

 time ago called to the fact that mice and other destructive rodents were largely 

 increasing throughout the United States, and it was suggested that the constant 

 destruction of the hawks and owls was the reason for it. In consequence of this 



