16 ANIMAL LIFE IN OKLAHOMA. 



companions once killed a wagon load of chickens on one hunt. The 

 law provides no open season on these birds, and they may be brought 

 back to an abundance where they can again be hunted, but it will take 

 a long time and a more strict enforcement of the law than is now 

 maintained. 



QUAIL. 



If the United States ever sees fit to erect a Hall of Fame for its 

 birds, the quail will occupy one of the chief places, for it is by all odds 

 the most valuable bird in North America. This is due not for its meat 

 alone, although this is 'a delicacy that is seldom, if ever, surpassed, but 

 for the constant, unselfish ser^'ice which this bird renders to the farmer 

 in its never-ending war agaioist the ravages of insects and weeds. The 

 quail ib an ally of the farmer, staying at his post throughout the 

 entire year and working on an average ten hours a day. In the summer 

 it runs down and consumes as many as one hundred and fifty different 

 kinds of insects, and in the winter it gathers and eats almost as many 

 varieties of noxious weed seeds. This bird has diminished in number 

 in Oklahoma, not at the hands of hunters alone, though they have 

 contributed in a large measure, but also because farmers have thought- 

 lessly burned over its nesting and feeding grounds, and have made no 

 provision for it in the new order on the farm. Every effort should be 

 made to bring the quail back to its former abundance, and to anyone 

 within the State who will provide suitable nesting places, the State 

 Game Warden will furnish free of charge a stock of these birds. There 

 are a few counties where the quail is yet numerous enough to Justify 

 hunting it, but such places are exceedingly rare. Wherever this bird 

 is diminishing, it is not only an economic blunder but a crime to de- 

 crease the number. 



HAWKS AND OWLS. 



Besides the quail we have a number of other birds that annually 

 make a large contribution to the wealth of the State through the service 

 they render to the farm and forest. Hawks and owls stand at the head 

 of this list, but unfortunately the first of these two does occasionally 

 take a chicken, and this causes it to be branded as a thief and an outlaw. 

 Xo thought is given the excellent service which it renders through the 

 months when it neither attacks nor cares to attack poultry. The average 

 adult hawk consumes each day at least six mice or their equivalent 

 in other rodents or harmful insects. Sino we have learned by experi- 

 ment that a single mouse causes an annual damage of at least two 

 cents, it is a simple process to compute that each adult hawk is worth 

 more than forty dollars a year to the farmers of the State. There are 

 two exceptions — ^Cooper's hawk, and the sharp-shinned hawk. These 

 species are thoroughly bad and deserve to be shot wherever found, but 

 they look so much like beneficial hawks that it is unwise to hunt them 

 in the field. A better plan is to have a gun at hand and be prepared 

 to execute summary vengeance on any marauder that dares approach the 

 chicken yard. Owls possess all the good habits of hawks, with none of 



