THE OOLOGIST 



45 



who say that the Hawks eat chickens 

 and game birds, which is true to a 

 small extent. However the chief food 

 of this bird (around here) is crayfish 

 which they catch in the shallow ponds 

 and streams, and field mice, and oc- 

 casionally a small bird or chicken; 

 but on the whole they are beneficial 

 birds and should be protected by law 

 and custom. 



Out of ten nests of this species ex- 

 amined in the last three years, in 

 about half of them I have found the 

 limbs around the nest scarred with 

 shot, where the nests had been shot 

 at to break the eggs or kill the young 

 birds, but in only one case have I 

 ever seen any damage done and then 

 only one egg was broken. This is due 

 to the great thickness of the nests. 

 DeLoach Martin. 



Notes on the Food of Certain Birds 

 of Prey 



By J. H. Bowles, Tacoma, Wash. 



For many years past I have been 

 much interested in the study of the 

 food and feeding habits of the birds 

 of prey occuring in the state of Wash- 

 ington, keeping a careful table of the 

 contents of all stomachs examined. 

 It would take up too much space to 

 give a detailed account of the results, 

 which might prove tiresome, but a 

 few excerpts here and there may 

 prove of interest. 



Circus hudsonia — Marsh Hawk. This 

 hawk is a summer resident on the 

 east side of the Cascade Mauntains, 

 but on the west side we know it only 

 as a somewhat rare fall visitor. The 

 only stomach I have had for examina- 

 tion contained the remains of two 

 Western Savanna Sparrows, but in 

 the gullet of this same hawk was a 

 mouse. This might prove damaging 

 to the reputation of this handsome bird 

 of prey, if we did not bear in mind 

 that these sparrows skulk about in the 



grass in a manner to make them 

 easily mistaken for mice. At any 

 rate, let us give the hawk the benefit 

 of the doubt. 



A c c i p i t e r velox — Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk. This species, together with its 

 close relative the Cooper's Hawk (Ac- 

 cipiter cooperi), I believe do more 

 harm than all the rest of the raptores 

 together. In a great many stomachs 

 of the Sharp-shinned, which is com- 

 mon, and a few of the rarer Cooper's, 

 I have seen not one from this state 

 that contained anything but birds, and 

 I do not remember of ever seeing a 

 stomach of either variety that was 

 empty. The Sharp-shins are not sum- 

 mer residents west of the Cascades. 

 The Cooper's is resident throughout 

 the year. I have examined the stom- 

 achs of two broods of young, about 

 three-quarters grown, and the parent 

 bird that were bringing them food. In 

 all of them the stomachs were packed 

 full of small birds, the old birds be- 

 ing full up into their throats. The 

 most striking point was that all of 

 these small birds appeared to be nest- 

 lings, many so young that it seemed 

 impossible that they had left their 

 nests. To me it seems beyond a doubt 

 that the hawks had systematically 

 hunted the nests and taken the young 

 birds out of them. The largest bird 

 that I have ever seen taken by the 

 Cooper's Hawk is the Oregon Ruffed 

 Grouse, which it captured in full flight. 

 . . Buteo borealis calurus — Western 

 Red-tailed Hawk. In a considerable 

 experience, both in California and 

 Washington, I have never known this 

 species to capture a bird of any kind. 

 Their food appears to consist entirely 

 of mammals, snakes, and carrion of 

 many kinds. This last feature has 

 been so apparent in some specimens 

 that it needed a considerable deter- 

 mination to prepare them. In one in- 

 stance one of these hawks was caught 



