82 BIRDS OF SOUTH DAKOTA 



over meadows and weed fields in search of small rodents. In 

 proportion to its size the wings and tail are longer than in other 

 Hawks. The nest is always placed on the ground in tall grass 

 or buck-brush thickets. This Hawk should never be killed, and 

 everyone, farmers in particular, should become familiar with it 

 and aid in its protection. Mice and gophers comprise the bulk 

 of its food. Of 124 stomachs examined by the Biological Sur- 

 vey, Department of Agriculture, forty-five per cent had fed on 

 mice, eighteen per cent on other small mammals, twenty-eight per 

 cent on reptiles, frogs and insects, and only a low percentage on 

 poultry and small birds. In 1910 a pair nested within thirty 

 rods of a farm house in Perkins County. Their family con- 

 sisted of five young, and as far as known not a single member of 

 the poultry yard was molested. 



One should not be surprised if the young birds, while 

 beginning to feed themselves, and with that ravenous appetite 

 which all young creatures have, should sometimes take a young 

 Chicken. This might be done occasionally in the immediate 

 neighborhood of their nest, when the fields have been searched 

 for mice and gophers during the summer by the parent Hawks. 

 However, the harm they do is negligible compared with the 

 vast amount they save the farmers each season. 



332. SHARP-SHINNED HAWK (Accipiter velox.) 



One of our smaller Hawks, measuring only from eleven 

 to thirteen inches in length, and not as common as the Marsh 

 Hawk. The female is longer than the male but the extra length 

 of her tail makes the difference. Back dark slate; head and 

 neck usually more or less streaked with brown and white ; under 

 parts including wings barred with white and rufous; tail with 

 four bars. Of the stomachs examined by the Biological Survey, 

 Department of Agriculture, ninety-four per cent of the contents 

 showed small birds and young poultry. This Hawk should be 

 destroyed with the same care that we use in protecting the 

 Marsh Hawk. But no Hawk should ever be killed until one is 

 sure what species he is killing. The destructive Hawks are the 

 exception, the beneficial ones the rule. 



333. COOPER'S HAWK (Accipiter cooperi.) "CHICKEN HAWK/' 



This Hawk is found quite generally over the State. Its 



