HAWKS. 



The first thing to learn about these birds is that 

 there are good Hawks and bad Hawks. We have 

 six species resident in this vicinity, only two of which 

 are harmful; the others are among the farmers' best 

 friends. The shooting of a good Hawk always results 

 in a distinct loss to the farmer of such products as are 

 destroyed by field mice, rats and rabbits. In some 

 agricultural districts, where there has been ignorant 

 and indiscriminate shooting of all Hawks, there has 

 frequently followed a field-mouse plague, which has 

 done incalculable damage. 



It is not so difficult as one might suppose to dis- 

 tinguish between injurious Hawks and those that are 

 beneficial. The two harmful species, Cooper's and 

 the Sharp-shinned, have long tails and slender bodies; 

 while the good Hawks, the Red-shouldered, Red- 

 tailed, Broad-winged and Sparrow' Hawk are rather 

 stocky, with short tails. The different habits of the 

 two kinds are even more distinguishing than their 

 appearance. The Poultry Hawk conceals himself in 

 a clump of evergreens or dense shrubbery near farm 

 buildings, from which he darts out among the poul- 

 try, seizes a chicken and is off, perhaps without being 

 seen or heard. 



Chicken Hawks seldom soar in the open as do the 

 mouse-hunting Hawks. Useful species often suffer 

 for the sins of the chicken thieves, for if a farmer 

 misses poultry and observes a Hawk soaring over his 

 meadows, he at once concludes that he sees the mis- 

 creant and gets his gun, when the real culprit is prob- 

 ably concealed in the nearest thicket, digesting his 

 last meal. 



