AVES 



193 



tion with the Red-tailed Hawk that "Of 562 stomachs examined, 54 

 contained poultry or game birds; 51, other birds; 278, mice; 131, other 

 mammals; 37, batrachians or reptiles; 47, insects; 8, crawfish; i, 

 centiped; 13, offal; and 89 were empty." It will be noted that 456 

 stomachs of the 562 examined contained mammals and insects, so that 

 this much-maligned bird evidently does much more good than harm, 

 in spite of its occasional theft of small poultry. 



FIG. 121. Cooper's hawk, A ccipiter cooperi. X%. 



Since so very few people are able to recognize the few destructive 

 species of hawks, especially on the wing, it would seem much the better 

 plan to "play safe" and leave them all alone. 



As an illustration of the losses sometimes caused by ignorance of 

 the real habits of animals, especially birds, Chapman (139) quotes 

 as follows from the 1886 report of C. Hart Merriam, then Ornithologist 

 and Mammalogist of the United States Department of Agriculture: 



"On the 23d of June, 1885, the Legislature of Pennsylvania passed an 

 act known as the 'scalp act,' ostensibly 'for the benefit of agriculture,' which 

 provides a bounty of 50 cents each on hawks, owls, weasels and minks killed 

 within the limits of the State, and a fee of 20 cents to the notary or justice 

 taking the affidavit. 



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