MANITOBA BIRDS OF PREY. 



The Historical and Scientific Society of 

 Manitoba met in the City Hall, Winnipeg, 

 on the evening of 8th December, 1898. 

 A good audience was present to examine 

 the specimens of the predaceous birds of 

 Manitoba prepared by the lecturer of the 

 evening. Wm Clark, Esq., Chief Factor of 

 the Hudson's Bay Company, President 

 of the Society, took the chair. Mr. Geo. 

 E. Atkinson, a corresponding member of 

 the Society, read the following paper on 

 the ■' Birds of Prey of Manitoba :" 



As Manitoba is an agricultural pro- 

 vince, natural or artificial conditions which 

 affect the farmer become objects of inter- 

 est to the who-le community. 



The increasing numbers, and consequent 

 increasing destructiveness of the gophers, 

 mice, and in some places, rabbits, are be- 

 coming grave questions for the agricultur- 

 alist to handle. 



This latter increase is what particularly 

 interests us in this paper and when asked 

 the cause, we reply, that it is largely be- 

 cause nature's enemies to these pests have 

 been ruthlessly persecuted and slaughtered. 

 Birds of prey have been allotted a portion 

 of the task of maintaining the limit of this 

 class of animals, and the removal of hawks 

 arid owls permits of the undisturbed in- 

 crease of gophers and mice. 



There is in the mind of the average far- 

 mer sportsman a prejudice in regard 

 to hawks and owls which is so firmly 

 rooted that it is impossible to eradicate 

 it, and if opportunity presents itsdlf, he 

 will never fail to vent his spleen upon 

 the unfortunate hawk, and all simply be- 

 cause of the loss of an occasional fowl. 

 Yet he will pet and feed in laziness and 

 luxury that model of iniquity and decep- 

 tion — the house cat — which will sneak 

 about under cover of darkness and pro- 

 tection and destroy more chickens and 

 small birds in one night than a hawk or 

 owl would in a lifetime. I feel satisfied 

 that were the farmers to dispense with the 

 domestic cat, close up the hen coops at 

 night and be com.pelled by law to give up 

 their unrighteous persecution of hawks 

 and owls, these rodent pests would mater- 

 ially diminish, as would also the poultry 



losses. Such I fear will never be accom- 

 plished until a different system of edu- 

 cation is adopted among farmers and more 

 attention is given to economic natural 

 history in our schools and agricultural 

 colleges. 



I propose in this paper to prove very 

 great economic values for these perse- 

 cuted creatures, as deduced from' practical 

 experiences of the most prominent auth- 

 orities on the subject. 



I regret to say that our Canadian Go- 

 vernments have never made an effort to 

 obtain practical information on these subr 

 jects from our own country, and that all 

 cur bird laws are made by guess work. 



The American Agricultural Bureau has 

 done much in the shape of practical- in- 

 vestigation, and it is to their reports I 

 must turn for the verification of state- 

 ments made here to supplement my own 

 experiences. 



The stomach records appended to each 

 species are from the report of Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher, of the U.S. Bureau of Agriculture 

 on Hawks and Owls, and are taken from 

 a total examination of some 2690 stomachs 

 collected in various parts of the United 

 States and Canada. 



The birds of prey are distributed over 

 the whole land surface of the globe, re- 

 presented alike in frigid and tropical 

 zones. There are about 60 species in 

 North America. According to their var- 

 ied characteristics they are divided into 

 three groups, viz.: Cathartidae, Falconi- 

 dae, Strigidae. 



1. Cathartidae— Includes' the vultures 

 and kindred carrion feeding forms, which 

 are mostly inhabitants of tropical or semi- 

 tropical countries, where nature has al- 

 lotted to them the position of scavengers 

 or cleansers, and so thoroughly do they 

 oerform their work that they are usually 

 looked upon with great favor in the warm- 

 er southern countries, and heavy penalties 

 are imposed upon anyone found destroy- 

 ing them, and in many places the vultures 

 nvay be seen at any hour of the day soar- 

 ing high in the air, keenly alert for dead 

 or dying creatures or perched upon a pro- 

 minence awaiting the last dying struggles 



