FOOD OF WEST VIKCIXIA BIRDS 



The Hawks and Eagles. 



Our catalogue of West Virginia Hawks and Eagles includes sixteen 

 species. These are all birds of considerable size, the smallest being 

 the Sparrow Hawk and the largest being the Eagles. Some of these 

 species, such as the Swallow-tailed Kite, Goshawk, Swainson's Hawk, 

 Golden Eagle, Bald Eagle and Pigeon Hawk, are exceedingly rare; three 

 others are not seen very often the Rough-legged Hawk, Duck Hawk and 

 Osprey or Fish Hawk; while the others are usually quite common. The 

 seven more common species, the Marsh Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, 

 Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-Shouldered Hawk, Broad-winged 

 Hawk and Sparrovv Hawk, ought to be studied very carefully, i'c is 

 a common custom among farmers' boys, hunters and every one who is 

 permitted to carry a gun to shoot Hawks indiscriminately and to execute 

 summary vengeance upon every bird that belongs to this family. This ( 

 may be legal, but it is wrong. In this entire family, so far as it is 

 represented in West Virginia, there are only three really harmful species. 

 These are the Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper's Hawk and Goshawk. As 

 has been said, the Goshawk is very rare. These three species are slender, 

 swift-winged birds, sometimes known as "Blue Hawks" because of their 

 bluish-gray colors. They are often called "Chicken Hawks" because they 

 are the most destructive of all the Hawks that frequent our poultry 

 yards. When these three destructive species can be distinguished from 

 the beneficial species they should be shot, but it is bad economy to 

 shcot many of our helpful Hawks for the sake of getting rid of a com- 

 paratively few harmful ones. That large Hawk which we so often see 

 sailing high in the air in slow and graceful curves, the bird that we 

 commonly call "Hen-Hawk," is the Red-tailed Hawk. The appropriate- 

 ness of this name may be seen by a glance at the tail of the male bird. 

 Of this species Dr. A. K. Fisher, our best authority on the food of the 

 Hawks and Eagles, has said, "Wlhile fully 66% of the Red-tails' food 

 consists of injurious mammals, not more than 7% consists 

 of poultry, and it is probable that a large proportion of the 

 poultry and game captured by it and the other Buzzard Hawks is made 

 up of old, diseased or otherwise disabled fowls, so preventing their inter- 

 breeding with the sound stock and hindering the spread of fatal epi- 

 demics." Dr. Fisher further says, in his Hawks and Owls of the United 

 States, that "G^ E&2 stomachs examined by the author, 54 contained 

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

 37, batrachians and reptiles; 47, insects; 8, crawfish; 13, offal; and 

 89 were empty." By this it may be seen that not more than 10% of 

 the food of these large Hawks is made up of poultry and game birds. 

 Many obnoxious mammals are destroyed by them. The little, vari- 

 colored Sparrow Hawk may be taken as an illustration of the good done 

 by certain members of this family. Though its name may seem to indi- 

 cate that it lives on some of our useful American Sparrows, the truth 

 of the matter is that not more than 16% of the food of this Hawk is 

 made up of our small wild birds. During the summer it feeds largely 

 on such insects as grasshoppers, crickets and spiders, and in the winter 

 it subsists largely on mice. When Dr. Fisher examined 320 stomachs 



