438 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



eyes in the adult are brown the former more of a horn- 

 color. In the immature specimen the bill and eyes are 

 yellow. Legs and feet in all specimens are of a rich 

 yellow. This is one of our largest hawks, often spread- 

 ing to nearly sixty inches, though three or four inches 

 short of that is the general rule; an adult female will 

 measure some twenty-two inches in length. 



Red-tails build big, bulky nests of twigs and bark, 

 with some moss, high up from the ground in large trees. 

 The same 

 structure is 

 used year 

 after year, 

 becoming more 

 and more bulky 

 as a d d i tional 

 material is an- 

 nually added to 

 it. The three 

 or four eggs 

 vary widely in 

 size, form, and 

 color pattern. 

 An average one 

 may be whitish, 

 blotched with 

 reddish and 

 brown, while 

 others are near- 

 ly white, with- 

 out any mark- 

 ings to speak 

 of ; and some 

 are seen where 

 the markings 

 form a wreath 

 encircling the 

 larger end or butt. There are several subspecies of this 

 famous hawk occurring in different parts of the country, 

 as Krider's Hawk ; the Western Red-tail ; Harlan's Hawk, 

 and the Alaska Red-tail. All have their subspecific scien- 

 tific names, and have long been known to ornithologists. 

 Then, too, all of the different forms have been called the 

 "Hen Hawk" by laymen all over North America. On 

 rare occasions they do eat poultry ; and for this com- 

 paratively slight offense, thousands upon thousands of 



them have paid the death penalty at the hands of the 

 farmer and uninformed countryman. At least sixty-six 

 per cent of their food consists of small mammals that 

 are the greatest enemies the farmer has to defend him- 

 self from, while hardly seven per cent of this valuable 

 bird's food consists of poultry. The latter has been 

 proven to be either old, useless fowls, or perchance so 

 diseased as to be a good riddance to the farm-yard any- 

 way. In this manner our Red-tail Hawk performs a 



service by 

 keeping down 

 fatal fowl epi- 

 demics, or des- 

 troying those 

 domestic 

 fowls that have 

 been crippled 

 by frost-bite, 

 old age, and 

 accidents. Its 

 chief food con- 

 sists of various 

 species of 

 ground and 

 arboreal squir- 

 rels ; all species 

 of field-mice, 

 rats, gophers, 

 rabbits, moles, 

 and a score of 

 others that are 

 the chief ene- 

 mies of the 

 a g r i culturists 

 and c o un t ry 

 residents gen- 

 erally. In fact, 

 this hawk should receive Federal protection against those 

 who aim to destroy it, and a stiff fine should be imposed 

 upon any unauthorized person killing one impressed with 

 the idea that the bird is a pest and one of the poultry- 

 man's enemies. One of the great mistakes constantly 

 being made by such thoughtless people is to destroy any 

 bird that may prey upon a few fowls each year, notwith- 

 standing the fact that it does destroy ten times the num- 

 mer of rapidly breeding vermin. 



OUR FARMERS HAVE A GREAT FRIEND IN THE RED-TAILED HAWK (Buteo b. borealis); 



Fig. U Our Red-tail Hawk is an elegent species; this is a subadult specimen taken in northern Virginia. 

 This Hawk is a great destroyer of rats and field mice as well as otner vermin. 



SPLENDID PROGRESS OF WOODEN SHIP BUILDING 



ACCORDING to the United States Shipping Board, 

 one ship a day is the pace wood ship yards now are 

 setting for other shipbuilding plants. 



The first seventeen days of May witnessed the launch- 

 ing of many wooden ships, adding 60,000 tons to the 

 American merchant marine. In four successive weeks, 

 the production of wooden ships has exceeded a launching 

 a day. 



Just recently the shipping board received word by 

 telegraph of four launchings in a single day. That was 



the banner day in war-time shipbuilding, a total of 

 14,500 tons going into the water. 



The ships launched on the record-breaking day 

 were: 



Pascagoula, 3,500 tons, Dierks, Blodgett Company, 

 Pascagoula, Mississippi ; Kuwa, 3,500 tons, Grant Smith- 

 Porter Ship Company, St. Johns, Oregon; Blackford, 

 4,000 tons, Grays Harbor Motor Ship Company, Aber- 

 deen, Washington; Basco, 3,500 tons, Universal Ship- 

 building Company, Houston, Texas. 



