128 



NATURE-STUDY 



cent, of the birds had eaten the caterpillars. Taking the 

 149 birds, 35 per cent, of their food was cankerworms, a very 

 good showing. 



There is a most unfortunate prejudice against hawks and 

 owls. An examination of their stomachs has shown that 

 most of them are positively beneficial to the farmer and the 



fruit raiser in destroying 

 gophers, rats, mice, wea- 

 sels, moles, insects, etc. 

 And yet the average man 

 or boy feels that he is 

 virtuously doing his duty 

 in shooting them. 



In the winter of 1904 

 field mice wrought great 

 destruction in the or- 

 chards of Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin. The mice 

 gnawed the bark at the 

 base of the young trees 

 and killed them. Similar 

 plagues of mice, gophers, 

 and other small rodents 



in this country and elsewhere. The only natural check seems 

 to be larger mammals and hawks and owls. It is known 

 that these birds are attracted to those regions where such 

 pests abound, and destroy great numbers of them. 



In 1886, the State of Pennsylvania offered a bounty on 

 hawks, owls, minks, and weasels, and in a year and a half paid 

 $90,000 in bounties. One hundred and twenty-eight thousand, 



