The Sharp-Shinned Hawk 97 



deftly on the onslaught of this Hawk that all escaped unharmed; but perhaps 

 such a happy consummation is the exception, and not the rule. 



Evidently the Sharp-shinned Hawk delights in the chase, and prefers birds 

 to any other food. Dr. A. K. Fisher, of the Biological Survey, reports as follows 

 ■on the contents of one hundred and seven stomachs of this Hawk that contained 

 food. Six had poultry or game birds, ninety-nine contained other birds, eight 

 contained mice, and five had eaten insects. Dr. B. H. Warren examined nineteen 

 stomachs of this bird, seventeen of which were found to contain remains of 

 poultry or game birds. 



This Hawk undoubtedly eats nearly if not quite all the smaller useful species 

 of land birds, and it feeds to some extent on mice, shrews, frogs, lizards and in- 

 sects. 



Its destructiveness is emphasized, but the folly of classing all Hawks and 

 Owls together as injurious is shown, by an experience at my home at Wareham, 

 Mass. In 1906, a pair of Screech Owls built their nest and reared their young in a 

 box that we put up for them in a pine grove. This grove was a noted Robin 

 roost and many birds nested in the vicinity. During the season the Owls killed 

 one Robin, a Red-winged Blackbird and several Bluejays, but they subsisted 

 chiefly on mice, and fed their young mainly with mice. The smaller birds increased 

 in numbers during the Owl's stay (possibly on account of the consequent 

 reduction in mice and Jays) . All the smaller birds seemed to have entered on an 

 era of prosperity, and they were more numerous on the farm in 1907 thaa in 

 1906. In 1908 we were away until July. The Owls had disappeared, and a pair 

 of Sharp-shinned Hawks had a nestful of young in the grove. During July 

 and August these Hawks so harried and destroyed the birds of the neighborhood 

 that practically all were killed or driven away, except two pairs of Song Sparrows 

 and a pair of Robins near the house. For the first time in our experience, the 

 Robin roost, which was formerly haunted by hundreds if not thousands of Robins 

 in summer, was now deserted, and the cries of the Hawks were about the onh' 

 bird notes heard in the grove. The contrast between the effect produced by 

 these Owls and that caused by the Hawks was so marked as to leave no room 

 for doubt regarding the utility of the Screech Owl and the harmfulness of the 

 Sharp-shinned Hawk. 



With the increase of game preserves,, in this country, and the increased 

 destruction of vermin, the Sharp-shinned Hawk must gradually disappear, for 

 the game-keeper is this Hawk's inveterate enemy. Let us hope that the useful 

 and comparatively harmless Hawks and Owls may not suffer from the game- 

 keeper's activity, or for the faults of the three species of true bird hawks, but 

 that such discrimination may be used by the game-keeper, the farmer, and the 

 sportsman, that the real culprits will be the only sufferers. 



