confines itself almost entirely to the wood- 

 ed country, where they sit about in pairs 

 on the trees or stumps watching for mice, 

 shrews and grasshoppers, and save for oc- 

 casionally dropping down on a small bird 

 they are wholily beneficial, as out of 90 

 stomachs examined only 2, or less than 

 3 per cent, contained birds, none of them 

 poultry, while the remainder contain- 

 ed mice and other mammals, insects and 

 reptiles. This hawk is a stupid bird, al- 

 lowing of a near approach, and are con- 

 sequently shot down wherever the wan- 

 dering shooter chances to come upon it. 



The Red-Shouldered Hawk, Buteo line- 

 atus, is also an inhabitant of the more 

 wooded country, and is, consequently sel- 

 dom met with in this part of the province, 

 being even more secluded in its retreat 

 than the broad-wing. On an examina- 

 tion of 220 stomachs, only 3, or about 1^ 

 per cent., contained poultry, while about 

 5-2- per cent, had small birds, the balance 

 containing mice and injurious mammals, 

 insects, fish and reptiles. Two contained 

 ofifal, showing the species to be almost as 

 fond of offal as of poultry. 



The Red-Tailed Hawk, Buteo Borealis, 

 is the largest of our common hawks and 

 is universally called the hen hawk by far- 

 mers. It frequents the vicinity of woods 

 or fresh clearings, where it sits upon a 

 branch of stump diligently watching for 

 mice and shrews, which aire so common 

 about old stumps and logs in such places. 



Occasionally, should one of these spots 

 be near the house or the farmyard, and the 

 poultry stray in that direction, he will steal 

 a hen, but it is usually the old' and en- 

 feebled veterans who are not quick 

 enough to escape his awkward pounce. 

 Even the proportion of such cases 

 amounts to about 10 per cent, of the 562 

 stomachs examined, consequently like his 

 brother Buteo, were it not for the small 

 birds he drops on occasionally he might 

 be placed in the beneficial class. 



The remaining number of the mainly 

 beneficial class is possibly the most com- 

 monly known of our large hawks, and is 

 also familiarly dubbed the "Hen-hawk" 

 (Buteo Swainsoni). It is doubtful, how- 

 ever, if Swainson's hawk would ever chase 

 a chicken past a gopher, or could catch 

 good healthy poultry or small birds. As in 

 the case of his brother borealis, it usually 

 happens to be the old rheumatic straying 

 fowl that he catches and which are not 

 worth much more than the cost of the 

 powder and shot to shoot the hawk. 



The usual position for this bird is bolt 

 upright on a hummock of earth or the 

 hill thrown up by a gopher or badger. 

 Here it will sit for hours scanning the 

 field, and woe to the gopher or mo'.ise 



who will stray from home when Swain- 

 soni is on the afert. He usually only 

 makes one or two sudden pounces and 

 rises with the animal in .his claws, carry- 

 ing it either to his young or alighting on 

 a prominence to devour it himself. It is 

 estimated that a Swainson hawk would 

 catch and eat at least five gophers a day, 

 and where one pair are at work they would 

 destroy ten gophers a day for their own 

 food, and at least as many more while 

 feeding the young for about three weeks. 

 At this rate they would feed the young 210 

 gophers in the three weeks, and during the 

 six months, at least, that these birds are 

 with us they would destroy a great num- 

 ber of these pests. 



If the amount of grain eaten by gophers 

 be taken into account it will be seen what 

 a friend to the faJrmer Buteo Swainsoni is. 

 Should not this be more than sufficient to 

 place protection on this hawk? Yet he is 

 a robber and a hen-hawk. If we give each 

 bird one hen a week while with us, which, 

 I am satisfied, is double the average taken 

 yny where by these birds, the value of the 

 poultry thus stolen is, at a liberal estimate, 

 of 25c. a head, for each pair of hawks, 

 $13.50 for the entire season, thus leaving a 

 cash balance to their credit of ten times 

 that amount at the end of the season. 



Of this species Dr. Cones speaks in his 

 " Birds of the Northwest," observations 

 of 1883: 



" The quarry of Swainson's Buzzard is 

 of a very humble origin. 1 never saw one 

 stoop upon a wild fowl or grouse, and 

 though they often strike down rabbits, like 

 the red-tails, their prey is usually nothing 

 larger than gophers. Though really strong 

 and sufficiently fierce birds, they lack the 

 snap of file falcons, and I scarcely think 

 they are quick enough to catch little birds 

 very often. T once saw one make the at- 

 tempt at a lark-bunting. The hawk 

 Doised in the air about twenty yards for 

 fully a minute, fell heavily with an awk- 

 ward thrust of its talons and missed its 

 prey. The little bird slipped off between 

 its feet, badly scared, no doubt, but still 

 uninjured, while the enemy flapped awav 

 sulkily to crowd about a gopher hole for 

 his dinner, or take pot luck at grasshop- 

 pers." 



HARMFUL HyVWKS. 



Now that we have reached the group 

 which may be considered harmful and for 

 whose depredations the majority of hawks 

 and owls suffer, as did the children of 

 Israel for the sins of one family, it will be 

 necessarv to show to what extent thev are 



