28 THE HAWKS AND OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



dwelling species usually are taken. When hard pressed it is said to 

 feed on offal and carrion; and in spring and fall, when water fowl are 

 abundant, it occasionally preys upon the dead and wounded birds 

 left by gunners. It seldom chases birds on the wing, though the 

 writer has seen it do so in a few instances. 



In speaking of the food of the Marsh Hawk, Audubon says: "The 

 food of the Marsh Hawk consists of insects of various kinds, especially 

 crickets, of small lizards, frogs, snakes, birds, principally the smaller 

 sorts, although it will attack partridges, plovers, and even green- 

 winged teals, when urged by excessive hunger." (Ornith. Biography, 

 vol. IV, p. 400.) 



Mr. H. W. Henshaw, whose great field experience in the West enables 

 him to speak authoritatively on the subject, says: "They were seen 

 at all hours of the day * * * in search of mice and gophers, which, 

 when obtainable, constitute the major part of its food. When urged 

 by hunger, it may attack birds ; and I remember to have been once 

 robbed of a widgeon I had killed and kept lying in the water, by one 

 of these birds; but generally they confine their attacks to the humblest 

 kind of game, which possess neither the strength to enable them to 

 resist nor the activity to evade the sudden descent of their winged 

 enemy." (Ornith. 100 Merid., 1875, p. 416.) 



Dr. Coues says: "It ordinarily stoops to field mice, small reptiles, 

 and insects. It is particularly fond of frogs." (Birds of the North- 

 west, p. 331.) 



Mr. Eidgway, in the Ornithology of the Fortieth Parallel (p. 580), 

 states that the stomachs and crops of specimens killed at Pyramid 

 Lake, 'Sev., were filled to their utmost capacity with the remains of 

 small lizards, and nothing else. 



Dr. B. H. Warren gives the following summary of his investigations 

 on this species: "In fourteen examinations made by myself, seven 

 hawks had only field mice in their stomachs; three, frogs; two, small 

 birds (warblers) ; one, a few feathers, apparently of a sparrow {Melo- 

 spiza), and fragments of insects; one, a large number of grasshoppers, 

 with a small quantity of hair, undoubtedly that of a young rabbit." 

 (Birds of Pennsylvania, 1888, p. 75.) 



There is another way in which it protects crops, albeit unconsciously, 

 as appears from the following: "It is also said to be very serviceable 

 in the Southern rice-fields in interrupting the devastations made by 

 swarms of bobolinks. As it saUs low and swiftly over the fields it 

 keeps the flocks in perpetual fluctuation and greatly interrupts their 

 depredations. Wilson states that one marsh hawk was considered by 

 the planters equal to several negroes for alarming the rice-birds." 

 (Hist. N. A. Birds, vol. iii, p. 218.) 



Dr. Merriam bears witness to the truth of the foregoing, for while 

 at Georgetown, S. C, he saw an immense flock of bobolinks driven 

 from a field by one of these hawks, which simply passed over at a 

 considerable height, and made no movement to molest them. 



