HASTY AND UNINTELLIGENT ACTION UNWISE 53 



THE HAWKS AND EAGLES 



Falconidae 



This section of the Order Raptores contains a remarkable 

 assemblage of forms, and the wide differences between some 

 of the groups add zest to the study of them. Some are ex- 

 pert in fishing, some are of dignified and imposing bearing, 

 some have beauty of plumage and one is the most beautiful flier 

 in all the bird world. Not very many years ago most people 

 regarded all hawks as so many robbers, deserving death. 



In 1893 the investigations of the Department of Agri- 

 culture revealed the surprising fact that of all the forty-one 

 species of day-flying birds of prey in North America, there 

 were only four species whose destructiveness so far outweighed 

 their useful services that they deserve to be destroyed. The 

 others are either harmless to man's interests, or else so posi- 

 tively beneficial that they deserve careful protection. Beyond 

 doubt, the careful and thorough investigations made by the 

 Biological Survey and the publication of the results have 

 resulted in the correction of popular errors which if persisted 

 in would have caused enormous losses to the farmers of the 

 United States. 



As an object lesson, take the case of Pennsylvania. 



In 1885 the legislature of that state enacted a law aimed 

 at the wholesale destruction of hawks and owls, and author- 

 izing the various counties to pay cash bounties for the "scalps" 

 of those birds, at the rate of fifty cents each. Immediately 

 the work of slaughter began. Many thousand scalps of hawks 

 and owls were brought in, and over $90,000 were paid out for 



