32 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



species, but make sweeping condemnation of the whole family. 

 The reasoning is much the same as that of an Indian or fron- 

 tiersman, who, being wronged by one individual, condemns the 

 whole race. It would be just as rational to take the standard 

 for the human race from highwaymen and pirates as to judge 

 all hawks by the deeds of a few. Even when the industrious 

 hawks are observed beating tirelessly back and forth over the 

 harvest fields and meadows, or the owls are seen at dusk flying 

 silently about the nurseries and orchards, busily engaged in 

 hunting the voracious rodents which destroy alike the grain, 

 produce, young trees and eggs of birds, the curse of the major- 

 ity of the farmers and sportsmen go with them, and their total 

 extinction would be welcomed. How often are the services 

 rendered to man misunderstood through ignorance ! The birds 

 of prey, the majority of which labor day and night to destroy 

 the enemies of husbandmen, are persecuted unceasingly, while 

 that gigantic fraud the house cat is petted and fed and given 

 shelter from which it may emerge in the evening to spread de- 

 struction among the feathered tribe. The difference between 

 the two can be summed up in a few words only three or four 

 birds of prey hunt birds when they can procure rodents for 

 food, while the cat seldom touches mice if she can procure 

 birds or young poultry. A cat has been known to kill twenty 

 young chickens in a day, which is more than most raptorial 

 birds destroy in a lifetime. * * * Hawks and owls are comple- 

 mentary to each other. While hawks hunt by day and keep 

 diurnal pests in check, owls, whose eyesight is keenest during 

 the twilight and early dawn, capture nocturnal species which 

 the former are not apt to obtain." 



The flight of this hawk is strong and vigorous. In soaring 

 and sailing it is scarcely surpassed by the turkey vulture. In 

 the autumn of 1902 I spent two weeks at Buzzard's Roost, tak- 

 ing a vacation and studying the birds. Among the most inter- 

 esting sights that I witnessed were several afternoon flights 

 of these hawks, the number of birds ranging from six to ten. 

 When first seen they would be coming down Fall Creek, just 

 over the cleared bottom land. Presently, before reaching Buz- 

 zard's Roost, they would turn towards the timber and com- 

 mence mounting higher and higher in spiral form, seemingly 



