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FOREST BIRDS 137 



Hawks that had been killed in order that their con- 

 tents might be carefully examined and its nature 

 learned, not from hearsay, but by actual analysis. 

 Many thousands of stomachs were sent to Wash- 

 ington. Experts devoted several years to a study 

 of their contents and the results proved, what nat- 

 uralists had long believed to be true, that, with but 

 few exceptions, our Hawks and Owls are among 

 the farmer's best friends. It was found, for ex- 

 ample, that of five hundred and thirty Red-tailed 

 Hawks no less than four hundred and fifty-seven, 

 or eighty-eight per cent, had eaten field mice, rabbits, 

 ground squirrels, gophers, and cotton rats, all more 

 or less harmful mammals. 



Only three out of two hundred and six Red-shoul- 

 dered Hawks had committed the crime of chicken- 

 killing for which the law condemned unheard the 

 remaining two hundred and three, while one hundred 

 and forty-two of these proved their value as allies 

 by eating mice and other rodent pests and ninety- 

 two had feasted upon insects. 



The Marsh Hawk, Broad-winged, and Rough- 

 legged Hawks had equally good, or even better rec- 

 ords, but when we come to Cooper's and the Sharp- 

 shinned Hawks we find the real offenders. Of 

 ninety-four of the former thirty-four had been eat- 

 ing poultry or game birds and fifty-two other birds. 



