nSTTRODUCTION. ' 1 1 



Although the facts concerning the food of hawks and owls are set 

 forth in detail under the several species, a few words are here added on 

 this the most important branch of the subject to the farmer. For con- 

 venience of discussion the forty -nine species and twenty-four subspe- 

 cies of rapacious birds may be separated into four classes, as follows : 



(a) Those wholly beneficial or wholly harmless. 



(6) Those chiefly beneficial. . 



(c) Those in which the beneficial and harmful qualities seem to bal- 

 ance each other. 



(d) Those positively harmful. 



The first class (a) includes six species: Eough-legged Hawk, Squir- 

 rel Hawk, Swallow-tailed Kite, White- tailed Kite, Mississippi Kite, and 

 Everglade Kite. 



The Eough-legged Hawk, one of our largest species, seems to feed 

 exclusively upon the smaller rodents, and, as it is found within the 

 United States from October to AprU, the number of meadow mice it 

 destroys is almost incalculable. It passes under the name of 'Hen 

 Hawk,' and many a luckless Eough-leg is shot for the latter, and per- 

 haps a bounty collected on it, when in fact it never destroyed a hen or 

 chicken in its life. 



The statement of Pennant and some of the earlier writers, that it 

 attacks ducks and other birds, lacks confirmation. 



The Squirrel Hawk, a near cousin to the Eough-leg, has received its 

 name because of its inordinate fondness for the ground squirrels, which 

 are so terribly destructive to the crops in the far West. 



The four kites named above, while not so beneficial to the farmer as 

 the two hawks just mentioned, are harmless to poultry, and feed largely 

 upon reptiles, insects, and snails. 



The second class (6), those mainly beneficial, includes the greater 

 number of species, and to it belong some of the most widely distributed 

 and best known ha\^ks. It includes the following: Marsh Hawk, 

 Harris' Buzzard, Eed-tailed, Hawk, Eed- shouldered Hawk, Short-tailed 

 Hawk, White- tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, Short- winged Hawk, 

 Broad-winged Hawk, Mexican Black Hawk, Mexican Goshawk, Spar- 

 row Hawk, Audubon's Oaracara, Barn Owl, Long-eared Owl, Short- 

 eared Owl, Great Gray Owl, Barred Owl, Western Barred Owl, Eich- 

 ardson's Owl, Acadian Owl, Screech Owl, Flammulated Screech Owl, 

 Snowy Owl, Hawk Owl, Burrowing Owl, Pygmy Owl, Ferruginous 

 Pygmy Owl, and Elf Owl. 



The Marsh Hawk, which heads the list, is also one of the first in 

 economic importance. It is distributed over the entire United States, 

 is abundant almost everywhere, and may be easily recognized by its 

 long, slim form and from the manner in which it beats back and forth 

 over the prairies, marshes, and meadows in search of ground squirrels 

 and mice, of which it annually destroys vast numbers. It would have 



