6 MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 28. 



the meadows and fields much like the Marsh Hawk, though their rounded 

 instead of pointed wings, broad instead of narrow tail, their more 

 leisurely manner, and the absence of conspicuous white rump mark 

 make them easily separable from that species. Their principal food is 

 mice and other small or open ground rodents and they lack the agility 

 necessary for the successful pursuit of more active game. Throughout 

 the prairie provinces they are inveterate gopher hunters and the number 

 of these pests estimated to be taken by them awakens astonishment. 

 During the summer of 1917 the writer was on the Red Deer river, 

 Alberta, where this class of hawks was very numerous. A considerable 

 number were taken and many nests examined none of which showed any 

 indication of other food than gophers. Great numbers were seen daily 

 and without exception all appeared to be engaged in hunting these pests. 

 In a little hollow by one Rough-leg nest was found nearly a bushel of 

 dried scraps and fragments of gophers, the discarded remains of innumer- 

 able meals. The number of gophers represented was not counted but 

 must have been several hundred and debris scraps of many more must 

 have fallen over the other edges of the nest ledge, and rolled down the 

 face of the cliff. A conservative estimate of the requirements of a 

 family of these large hawks is surprising in its results. Two adults 

 from spring arrival to birth of young (three months) require a gopher a 

 day, making a total of 90; two adults and four young average three 

 per day for two months, a total of 180; six practically adult birds for 

 one month average one per day each (for growing birds require more 

 food than old), a total of 180. Thus the grand total for one family for 

 the summer season would be 350 gophers. A single gopher under 

 favourable circumstances can and does destroy in the neighbourhood of 

 one bushel of wheat. Supposing that one-tenth of this can be charged 

 against the average gopher we still have some thirty-five bushels of 

 grain as the value of one family of these large hawks. At $2.20 per 

 bushel, the present price of wheat fixed by the government, this makes 

 the very substantial amount of $77. 



It is true that some of these hawks take an occasional fowl or game 

 bird, but of 630 stomachs examined, of the species under consideration, 

 only 54 (Red-tails) contained fowl or game birds. Of these, 34 were 

 taken in late autumn, winter, or early spring when gophers were not 

 procurable, and the remaining 20 were from eastern localities where 

 gophers do not occur. In the itemized record given, every bird taken 

 in gopher country had fed upon rodent species almost exclusively. 



It is evident that in the prairie provinces at least, this group of large 

 hawks is wholly beneficial to the farmer and they should receive 

 every encouragement and protection. 



The separation between these four Buzzard Hawks is complicated 



