8 ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS. 



tions, the Sharp-shinned and Cooper's Hawk, all our com- 

 moner Hawks and Owls are beneficial. In his exhaust- 

 ive study of the foods of these birds Dr. A. K. Fisher, 

 Assistant Ornithologist of the United States Department 

 of Agriculture, has found that ninety per cent of the 

 food of the Red-shouldered Hawk, commonly called 

 " Chicken Hawk " or " Hen Hawk," consists of injurious 

 mammals and insects, while two hundred castings of the 

 Barn Owl contained the skulls of four hundred and fifty- 

 four small mammals, no less than two hundred and twenty- 

 five of these being skulls of the destructive field or meadow 

 mouse. 



Still, these birds are not only not protected, but in 

 some States a price is actually set upon their heads ! 

 Dr. C. Hart Merriam, Ornithologist and Mammalogist 

 of the United States Department of. Agriculture, has 

 estimated that in offering a bounty on Hawks and Owls, 

 which resulted in the killing of over one hundred thou- 

 sand of these birds, the State of Pennsylvania sustained a 

 loss of nearly four million dollars in one year and a half ! 



As destroyers of the seeds of harmful plants, the good 

 done by birds can not be overestimated. From late fall 

 to early spring, seeds form the only food of many birds, 

 and every keeper of cage-birds can realize how many a 

 bird may eat in a day. Thus, while the Chickadees, Nut- 

 hatches, "Woodpeckers, and some other winter birds are 

 ridding the trees of myriads of insects' eggs and larvae, 

 the granivorous birds are reaping a crop of seeds which, 

 if left to germinate, would cause a heavy loss to our agri- 

 cultural interests. 



As scavengers we understand that certain birds are of 

 value to us, and therefore we protect them. Thus the 

 Vultures or Buzzards of the South are protected both by 

 law and public sentiment, and as a result they are not 

 only exceedingly abundant, but remarkably tame. But 



