292 FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



Marsh Hawk, — One of the most valuable destroyers 

 of meadow mice and ground squirrels. This hawk differs 

 from most of its kind in that it is almost exclusively a 

 ground bird, flying low to beat up its prey, and even 

 nesting on the ground. Its young are fed on bits of the 

 same food as the adults eat, and on small insects. The 

 food of adult marsh hawks consists of field mice, shrews, 

 and moles, and such other small rodents as may be 

 found. 



Adult Red-Tails (often called hen hawks) should 

 bear no such evil reputation. The stomachs of many birds 

 examined, show it to be a mouse eater, var)dng its diet 

 with the larger insects, small rodents, and reptiles. 

 The stomachs examined in winter contained poultry and 

 game birds in. the ratio of fifty-four out of five hundred 

 sixty-two stomachs, nine per cent of the whole number 

 of birds examined. 



Barn Owl. — ^Probably the most valuable rat and mice 

 catcher in the United States. Its nestlings are fed at 

 night when mice are abroad — and people are asleep. 



Burrowing Owl. — Adults eat, and feed their nest- 

 lings, grasshoppers, beetles, mice, frogs, snakes, lizards, 

 and crayfish. 



Screech owls eat mice and many insect pests ; feed 

 their young the same sorts of food as they themselves eat. 



As to the owls in general, if the boy or the man who 

 considers them a pest will go to the nests of these birds, 

 he will always find evidence on the ground below the 

 nest of the nature of the food of these birds. They 

 swallow their food whole and afterward eject through 

 the mouth the indigestible portions, such as bones, hair, 

 or chitinized insect legs, though chitin yields more 

 readily to digestive fluids than do either bones or hair. 



