1898.] ESSAYS. 51 



see its head upon a hat. Nearly three-fourths of its food is of 

 injurious mammals, together with grasshoppers, crickets, and 

 rats, mice, chipmucks, cut-worms, and small reptiles. He also 

 devours night-flying beetles, and no other Owl, except the 

 Burrowing Owl, destroys so many noxious insects. It is one of 

 the most nocturnal of our species, choosing dark cavities in 

 hollow trees during the day. This little Owl does not migrate 

 or even wander far from its habitation during the winter months. 

 It is known to be an expert fisherman, one hole was found to 

 contain sixteen horned pouts that the Owl had caught through a 

 hole in the ice. It was a mile from the hole in the ice to the 

 hole in the tree where it stayed during the winter. They often 

 go about the city and do good work in destroying English 

 Sparrows as well as mice. 



The different species of the Hawk should be carefully dis- 

 criminated. There are three that are injurious, as they attack 

 poultry to a large extent, and perhaps do more damage in eating 

 poultry than in destroying mice and small reptiles — they are the 

 Sharp-shinned, the little Hawk that flies through the trees so 

 swiftly, Cooper's Hawk, and the Goshawk. The Red-shouldered, 

 the Red-tailed, the Broad-wing-ed, and the Rough-legged are 

 very valuable. The Red-shouldered and the Red-tailed are often 

 called Hen Hawks and are shot at mercilessly, but they destroy 

 a great many of the smaller rodents that do so much harm. They 

 kill mice, rabbits, frogs, snakes, half-grown squirrels. The 

 Broad-winged hawk is especially useful as it flies in the dusk 

 and destroys great numbers of the larvas of the larger moths 

 that smaller birds either cannot take care of or do not care for. 

 The Rough-legged hawk comes to us in the winter and always 

 keeps just south of the snow line, and is valuable in destroying 

 mice. 



We have just one bird that seems not to be valuable in any 

 respect, that is the English Sparrow. A pamphlet has just been 

 published in England showing investigations that have been 

 made there. Investigations had been begun there, but were 

 abandoned shortly before it was introduced into this country. 

 It seems very unfortunate that the matter should not have been 



