34 Wild Bird Guests 



destroyer of skunks, and probably weasels, and 

 other bird enemies. The screech owl undoubt- 

 edly kills many small birds, some no doubt while 

 they are asleep on their roosts; others are 

 probably dragged from their nests. From the 

 wing and tail feathers often found in the nests 

 of screech owls it would seem that they capture 

 a good many flickers. 



But of the birds of prey in this country, 

 Cooper's hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk are 

 perhaps, all things considered, the very worst. 

 Not only does each individual kill and devour a 

 great number of small birds, but these hawks are 

 common over a wide range and thus constitute 

 a serious check upon the increase of other birds. 

 There are several other kinds of hawks, the 

 duck hawk, for example, which are just as savage 

 and individually just as destructive, but they 

 are uncommon and therefore have but slight 

 eff^ect on the bird population of the country. 



The sharp-shin is a small, silent, fast-flying 

 hawk that suddenly appears seemingly from 

 nowhere, descends like a flash of lightning upon 

 some small bird in the grass, or dashes into the 

 foliage of a tree or bush to emerge a moment 

 later with a limp song sparrow, thrush, or other 

 little songster in his talons. In a field close to 

 my house I saw a sharp-shinned hawk catch and 



