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Conservation Reader 



food for their children, they were never sure of finding them 

 alive upon their return. The judge inquired carefully as 

 to the truth of these complaints, but found that only a few 

 of the hawks were guilty as claimed. These included the 

 peregrine falcon, sharp-shinned hawk, and Cooper's hawk. 

 The other hawks proved that they were the farmers' best 

 friends, for they waged endless war upon mice, rats, ground 

 squirrels, gophers, and rabbits, and only occasionally 

 caught other birds. They had evidence also that in those 

 places where their numbers had been much reduced by the 

 hunters, the small rodents increased enormously. 



The court had to be held at night to accommodate the 

 owls and give them justice. The judge decided from the 

 evidence that, in this family as in the last, there were good 



Full-grovvn young red-tailcj hawks. 



finlcy 6* Bohtman 



