SERVICES OF HAWKS AND OWLS TO MAN. 



DR B. H. WARREN, of the West- 

 chester (Pa.) Microscopical Society, 

 continues to investigate the stomach con- 

 tents of hawks and owls, shot under the 

 Pennsylvania law for their extermination, 

 and is accumulating an amount of positive 

 evidence rather startling to the farmers who 

 have been such warm advocates for the ex- 

 termination of "noxious birds," on the sup- 

 position that they subsisted wholly or in 

 great part on chickens. 



That some large hawks will occasionally 

 carry off a chicken, is indisputable, and our 

 Pennsylvanian neighbors having abundant 

 evidence on this head, and deemiing the ex- 

 termination of the whole noxious brood a 

 measure justified by self-interest, passed 

 a law known as the "scalp act," granting 

 bounties for the destruction of hawks and 

 owls. 



Dr. Warren ascertained that during the 

 first six months of 1886 the number of birds 

 killed under the act in 34 of the 67 counties 

 was, hawks, 9,237, at a cost for bounties 

 of $7,335; and owls, 2,499, ^t a cost of 

 $1,313.90. The total cost for the year for 

 destruction of these birds is estimated at 

 $35,000. The number destroyed may be 

 roughly estimated at 50,000. 



Dr. Warren's investigations as to the food 

 of these birds were confined to individ- 

 uals shot in Westchester county under the 

 act. He has no theories to advance, he is 

 simply a collector of facts; he examined the 

 stomach contents of seventy-five hawks 

 within the year, and finds that chicken con- 

 stitutes a very small proportion of hawk 

 diet. There is considerable diversity of 

 food, but the standing dish, the main staff 

 of life for all the birds of the order, appears 

 to be field mice, as will be gathered from 

 the following abstract from Dr. Warren's 

 tabulated statement: 



Of thirty-four hawks, including nine big 



chicken hawks, two long-tailed chicken 

 hawks, two little hen hawks, thirteen spar- 

 row hawks and eight red-shouldered hawks, 

 only one exhibited a trace of chicken in its 

 stomach, six exhibited nothing but the re- 

 mains of small birds, twenty-one had been 

 feeding on mice, either alone, or diversified 

 with beetles and grasshoppers, and nine en- 

 tirely on beetles and grasshoppers. Later 

 Dr. Warren examined forty birds on which 

 bounty had been paid, with the following; 

 results: 



One bird, a red-tailed hawk, was found to 

 have fed on chicken only ; a second ex- 

 ample of the same species had in its gizzard 

 remains of a chicken and portions of a field 

 mouse. Two red-tailed hawks had fed on 

 red squirrels, another pair of red-tailed 

 hawks had taken rabbits. Eight sparrow 

 hawks, included in this series of forty odd 

 birds, revealed chiefly mice and grasshop- 

 pers. The remainder of the forty odd 

 birds, ten of which were screech and long- 

 eared owls, had in their viscera chiefly field 

 and mer.dow mice. The owls, with the ex- 

 ception of one screech owl, that had in its 

 stomach an English sparrow, had all sub- 

 sisted on mice and insects, principally grass- 

 hoppers. In fact, chickens are indulged in 

 only as an exceptional luxury. 

 '' Similar results are reached by other in- 

 vestigations in the same field. Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher, Assistant Ornithologist U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C, 

 in a letter dated Jan. 15, 1887, addressed to 

 Dr. B. H. Warren, says: "Wednesday I 

 received eight adult redtails and two red- 

 shouldered hawks from a man in Maryland. 

 * * * I find nothing but mice and shrews 

 in their crops and stomachs (from two to 

 five in each). I found two specimens of 

 Sorex and the following specimens of mice: 

 AIus musculus, Hesperomysleucopus, Arvicola 

 7'iparius, and Arvicola pinetorum." A de- 



