52 



BIRDS OP A MARYLAND FARM. 



SO \igilantly in autumn and winter that birds which eat weed seed are 

 kept in constant terror, and are unable to do all the good they might 

 accomplish were it not for their tireless enemies. Owing to the 

 depredations of these two hawks, all hawks without distinction have 

 been relentlessly persecuted by man, although very few are actually 

 detrimental to agriculture. 



Great Horned Owl. — Only one of the several species of owls occur- 

 ring at Marshall Hall is harmful, namely, the great horned owl (fig. 20). 



Fig. 20. — Great horned owl. 



It occasionally makes inroads on poultry that is not housed. In 

 December, 1897, a great horned owl carried off a full-grown hen from 

 her roost in a tree beside the negro cabin, and on five of the first ten 

 nights of May one came and took hens from the cedar trees behind the 

 house. On the night of the sixth visit a steel trap baited with a hen 

 secured the i-obber. A j'ear seldom passes without losses from this 

 fierce and powerful bird of prey. 



