?o 



IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



that the mother bird had caught, 

 perhaps from the very farm 

 3^ard of one of these boys. The 

 Red-tailed Hawk renders valuable 

 service to the farmer and should 

 not in return for its good work be 

 killed at every opportunity — just 

 because it occasionally carries off 

 a chicken from the poultry yard. 

 They are merely taking part pay 

 for valuable services rendered. 



In re'gard to the food and use- 

 fulness of this Hawk, I can not 

 do better than quote from bulle- 

 tin No. 3, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture: 



"Of 562 stomachs examined by 

 the author, 54 contained poultry 

 or game birds; 51, other birds; 

 273, mice; 131, other mammals; 

 37, batrachians and reptiles; 47, 

 insects; 8, crawfish; 13, offal; and 

 89 were empty. It has been' dem- 

 onstrated by careful stomach ex- 

 amination that poultry and game 

 birds do not constitute more than 

 ten per cent of the food of this 

 Hawk; and that all the othrr 

 beneficial animals preyed upon, 

 including snakes, will not in- 

 crease the proportion to fifteen 

 per cent. Thus the balance in 

 favor of the Hawk is at least 85 

 per cent, made up largely of vari- 

 ous species of injurious rodents, 

 a fact that every thoughtful 

 farmer should remember. 



''It is not to be denied that 

 a good deal of poultry is destroyed 

 by this Hawk, but the damage 

 done is usually among the less 

 vigorous fowls in the late fall, and 

 in view of the great number of 

 injurious rodents, as well as other 

 noxious animals which this 

 Hawk destroys, it should seem 

 equivalent to a misdemeanor to 

 kill one, except in the act of 

 carrying off poultry. The fact 

 that there are robbers among 

 Hawks, is no sound argument for 

 exterminating any and every one.' 

 — The Hawks and Owls of the 

 United States in Their Relation 

 to Agriculture, by A. K. Fisher, 

 M.D., p. 50. 



The eggs of the Red-tailed 

 Buzzard are laid during the latter 

 part of March and all of April. 

 The handsome set of three col- 

 lected on this day, are as follows 

 in size and color: 2.27x1.81. 

 Ground color, bluish white; 

 heavily blotched and splashed 

 with different shades of red and 

 brown; several dots of dark red- 

 dish brown. 2.15x1.78. Hand- 

 some egg, marked nicely with 

 cinnamon red splashes and blotch- 

 ed all over. 2.18x1,83. Very 

 light, fine dots of red, but only 

 few; also couple blotches and 

 several greenish shell markings. 



The other sets of this havvk in 



