BIRDS OF NEW YORK STATE 169 



c Destructive hawks 



Three or four of the hawks feed largely upon birds or poultry 

 and they are therefore more destructive than beneficial. They 

 are the goshawk, the cooper, the sharp-shinned and the duck. 

 The largest of the owls, the great horned, likewise sometimes 

 takes poultry and is regarded as destructive. The rest of the 

 hawks and owls occasionally take small birds or poultry, but 

 they far more than make up for it in their destruction of small 

 rodents. 



Cooper hawk Nu HC4 



d Peculiarities of shrikes 



Northern shrike Nu SiN8 



4 Birds as scavengers 



The fourth way in which birds are of value to man is in clean- 

 ing up the lakes and harbors of waste and dead fish and in feed- 

 ing upon dead animals that would otherwise pollute the air and 

 contaminate our water supply. About lakes and harbors it is 

 chiefly the gulls, and in the woods and fields the crows and the 

 vultures that perform this important work. 



Herring gulls 

 Herring gulls 

 Crows 

 Vulture 

 Vulture 



5 Game birds 



The fifth way in which birds serve man is as game in supply- 

 ing health-giving sport and food for the table. Certain birds like 

 the water fowl, the grouse and the pheasants seemed designed 

 by nature to serve as game. Their flesh is excellent, their repro- 

 ductive capacity is large and their wits are keen. When given 

 sufficient protection by the game laws and when these laws are 

 respected, they ordinarily are able to maintain their numbers 

 and in recent years have been increasing. Emphasis should be 

 laid, however, upon the necessity for obeying the game laws, if 

 the game birds of the country are not to be exterminated, and 

 upon the value of real sportsmanship in hunting. A large num- 

 ber of hunters, when they take out their guns, seem to lose 

 their ideals of manliness, honesty or even common decency and 

 go through the country like hoodlums breaking down fences. 



