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The farmer and the poultry grower may easily learn to recognize 

 the few harmful species of hawks, and should confine their warfare to 

 these. The practice of setting pole traps for hawks and owls is 

 exceedingly reprehensible, as it results chiefly in the destruction of 

 our beneficial owls when they come about the premises at night in 

 search of rats. Furthermore, the beneficial hawks and owls should 

 have legal protection. The larger hawks, nearly all of which are 

 beneficial, are slow of wing and much more likely to be shot than the 

 swifter and more harmful falcons. 



NATIVE WILD MAMMALS. 



Not many species of wild carnivorous mammals live where the 

 common rat is abundant. Coyotes, foxes, and a few others occa- 

 sionally find a rat in the fields, but for the most part they depend for 

 food on native wild rodents and other animals. Chief among the 

 mammals that do good work in destroying rats are skunks, minks, 

 and weasels. 



SKUNKS. 



Skunks are excellent ratters, and when they take up their abode 

 on the premises of the farmer, they speedily destroy or drive away all 

 rats and mice. This statement applies equally to the large skunks 

 (Mephitis) and the little spotted skunks (Spilogale). Unfortunately, 

 skunks are seldom allowed to tenant the premises without being 

 molested by either dogs or men. When undisturbed, they are in- 

 offensive, and will stay about the farm buildings or stacks until rats 

 and mice are no longer to be had for food. 



Skunks usually hunt by night, and hence poultry properly housed 

 is safe from them. The larger skunks do not climb, and can capture 

 only fowls that roost on the ground. Indeed, so few skunks ever 

 learn to kill poultry that there is no good reason for warfare on the 

 skunk family. Besides destroying mice and rats, the animals are 

 invaluable as consumers of noxious insects, especially cutworms, army 

 worms, white grubs, May beetles, grasshoppers, crickets, and sphinx 

 moths. 



WEASELS. 



Weasels are good ratters and mousers. Several of our species 

 come about buildings, and often perform excellent service in destroy- 

 ing rats and mice. They are more likely than the skunk to attack 

 poultry, for they can enter the poultry house through smaller open- 

 ings. At times weasels seem to kill for the mere love of killing, and 

 while occasionally this trait makes them formidable in the poultry 

 house, it also renders them more efficient as destroyers of rodents. A 

 small weasel can follow a rat into all its retreats, and will soon clear 

 a stackyard or shed of all rodents. 



