44 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



respect, but, nevertheless, feeding to the extent of more than 15 per cent 

 upon our smaller birds, are the Sparrow hawk, Marsh hawk, Screech owl, 

 Barred owl and Snowy owl. Especially destructive to nestlings and eggs 

 are the Crow, Bluejay, Bronzed grackle, Cowbird and English sparrow. 

 Destruction of fish and frogs. It will be evident to the reader that 

 all the fish-eating species would fall in this category. Especially injurious 

 in this respect are the loons, larger grebes, cormorants, gannets, American 

 and Red-breasted mergansers, herons, Fish hawk and Kingfisher. It is 

 often urged by bird lovers that the loon, grebe, fish hawk and heron are 

 more valuable from the picturesqueness which they lend to the lake and 

 stream-side than the small fry which they destroy in gaining their daily 

 livelihood, and it is undoubtedly a fact that the larger fishes — the game 

 fishes in particular — rarely fall a prey to these piscivorous species ; but 

 the destruction of great numbers of minnows, chubs and shiners has 

 a direct influence upon the abundance of food fishes as that is their 

 principal sustenance. The birds mentioned also destroy a considerable 

 number of the young of trout and white fish, as I have found by the 

 dissection of loons, grebes and mergansers; and the Great blue heron as 

 well as the Kingfisher are sometimes veritable scourges of brook trout 

 preserves. I have watched a Great blue heron feeding on the edge of 

 a trout pond strike and swallow seven fingerling trout in the course of as 

 many minutes; and the Kingfisher also destroys large numbers of these 

 speckled beauties. All the fish-eating species are especially voracious. 

 While duck shooting on the Montezuma marshes, I once noticed a small 

 flock of Red-breasted mergansers feeding in shallow water capturing what 

 appeared to be great numbers of fish. After they had been feeding for 

 half an hour two of the birds were shot, and from the gullet and stomach 

 of one I took thirteen chubs, some of them five inches in length. The 

 Hooded merganser is not known to feed to such an extent on fish, although 

 it destroys a considerable number. Many of the sea ducks, especially 

 the Old squaw and Golden-eye, are partially fish-eaters. As far as direct 

 usefulness is concerned, undoubtedly the American and Red-breasted 



