HAWKS AND EAGLES. 39 



tainous sections. It breeds at Lake City, Walker Lake, Turrell, 

 McGehee, Camden, and Wilmot. Two adult specimens taken at 

 Wilmot the last week in June were molting, and at the same time 

 and place two fully grown young birds were secured. Preble found 

 the species common at Fort Smith and saw a few at Fayetteville 

 in September, 1892. Savage reports it uncommon at DeUght in 

 summer, and HoUister records it as "tolerably common" around 

 Stuttgart in winter. This hawk is a most beneficial species, feeding 

 chiefly on mice and other small mammals, snakes, frogs, insects, and 

 very rarely on birds. Two of the hawks collected at Wilmot had 

 been feeding on a chicken. In the stomachs of the other two there 

 were beetles, caterpillars, a grasshopper, a spider, and a toad. Of 

 220 stomachs of this hawk examined in the Biological Survey, only 

 two contained remains of poultry and only 13 remains of other 

 birds, while 102 contained mice. In spite of these well-known facts, 

 the hawks are relentlessly destroyed by farmers on the mistaken 

 theory that they are inveterate chicken thieves. 



, Broad-winged Hawk. Buteo platypterus. 



The broadwing occurs as a migrant and a locally common summer 

 resident. In 1890 it was reported as a common breeder at Clinton, 

 arriving from the south February 18. Mr. Savage noted one at 

 Dehght, Pike County, on March 21, 1910, and Mrs. Stephenson 

 reports it as a summer resident at Helena. I did not observe the 

 species in the State, but shot a young bird June 15 in Oregon 

 County, Mo., about a mile from Mammoth Spring, Ark. Bendire 

 speaks of this hawk as "eminently a bird of the larger forests, and 

 seldom seen in the more open and cultivated country;" while Wid- 

 mann says that in Missouri it "prefers undulating ground where 

 wooded tracts, even of medium-sized trees, adjoin creek bottoms, 

 wet meadows, and cultivated fields." The broadwing is one of the 

 beneficial hawks, its food consisting largely of small mammals, 

 reptiles, batrachians, and insects. 



[Golden Kagle. Aquila chrysaetos. 



The golden eagle is a common bird in the western United States and has frequently 

 been taken in Missouri in winter. It probably occiurs irregularly in Arkansas, and 

 may possibly breed in the mountainous parts of the State.] 



Bald Eagle. Malissetus leucocepkalus. 



This fine bird is a rather rare resident in the wilder sections of the 

 State, chiefly in the big swamps of the eastern part. It was reported 

 to be rare at Osceola in 1886, near Clinton in 1890, and near Helena 

 in 1910. One was seen at Clinton on February 9, and HoUister 

 reports a few in winter in the vicinity of Stuttgart (1899 and 1900). 

 Mr. S. C. Dowell, of Walnut Ridge, has in his possession a mounted 



