AMERICAN BIRDS OF PREY 



461 



Biological Survey have been instructed to 

 send to the Bureau the crops and stom- 

 achs of all the birds and animals they 

 collect, that their food habits may be 

 studied without favor or prejudice. As 

 a result of this study, the balance in favor 

 of the American birds of prey has been 

 shown to be an overwhelming one. No 

 similar natural check exists against the 

 hordes of destructive and rapidly multi- 

 plying field-mice, gophers, wood-rats, 

 ground-squirrels, and moles. Many perse- 

 cuted species of birds feed their ravenous 

 young almost exclusively on those pests 

 of our grazing and grain regions, the 

 grasshoppers, locusts, and mole-crickets. 



It cannot be denied, nor is it my inten- 

 tion to palliate the charge, that certain 

 hawks and owls are villainous destroyers 

 of poultry, game, and beneficial birds. 

 Let it be said here in parentheses, how- 

 ever, that man's own self-introduced pet, 

 the cat, undoubtedly kills as. .many, little 

 chickens and vastly more beneficial and 

 desirable birds than do all the birds of 

 prey in America, many times over. 



Virtually all the damage of which the 

 opponents of our birds of prey complain 

 is done by five kinds of hawk and one 

 owl. The number of birds and fowls 

 killed by the remaining eleven common 

 hawks and five owls is so insignificant as 

 to be comparatively of no importance. 



The purpose of this study is not to 

 cover in detail the whole performance of 

 the entire list of American raptorial 

 birds, and not more than two-thirds of 

 the species are mentioned. Those that 

 are so rare or that dwell in such remote 

 or uninhabitable regions as seldom to fall 

 under observation are omitted, as the 

 family is, at best, a difficult one to de- 

 scribe or treat in a simple and lucid way. 

 This is, of course, the reason for the 

 present confusion in the minds of all ex- 

 cept real students of ornithology. Still, 

 the injustice and folly of persecuting a 

 valuable family of birds for the misdeeds 

 of less than a fourth of its number is 

 so preposterous that another attempt to 

 clear the situation is justifiable. 



THE DESTRUCTIVE SPECIES (SEE COLOR 

 PEATE XVI ) 



Among hawks, the guilt for poultry, 

 tgame, and bird slaughter practically falls 

 on two rather small groups, most mem- 



bers of both groups being among the 

 comparatively rare hawks. The whole 

 genus Accipiter, consisting of the Gos- 

 hawk, Cooper's Hawk, and Sharp-shinned 

 Hawk, are savage, bloodthirsty, and cold- 

 hearted slaughterers, and are responsible 

 in large measure for the anathema that 

 is the portion of all hawks. Of these the 

 Goshawk {A. atricapillus) is at once the 

 largest and most destructive. It inhabits 

 only the northern wooded portions of 

 America, coming south in winter to a line 

 extending from Virginia to central Cali- 

 fornia, and farther south in the moun- 

 tains. 



This intrepid bird has frequently been 

 known to chase a fowl into a farm-house 

 and make its kill in an inner room (see 

 page 459). It is a forest hawk and is 

 seldom seen far from the cover of woods. 

 It feeds on birds in preference to all 

 other food, with rabbits as second choice. 

 On-northern game preserves it is coming 

 to be a grave nuisance and has seriously 

 menaced the small remaining numbers of 

 Heath hens on Marthas Vineyard. Its 

 rarity over most of the country is its one 

 redeeming feature, unless we can admire 

 its intrepid courage and its great beauty, 

 ignoring its destructiveness. 



The Cooper's Hawk {A. cooperi) is 

 the most important species as a destroyer 

 of game and poultry. It is a common 

 species everywhere in North America, 

 living in the woods, whence it makes 

 short, swift sallies, returning immedi- 

 ately with its prey. It is seldom appre- 

 hended at work and is known chiefly hj- 

 its accomplished depredations. It is a 

 bold, cunning, and destructive hawk, and' 

 is, more than any other species, responsi- 

 ble for the work which has given all 

 hawks a bad name. While most of its 

 daily kill is among the birds of the forest, 

 it is a serious nuisance on the farm, tak- 

 ing toll of young chickens, ducks, and pig- 

 eons, but being hardly powerful enough 

 to tackle successfully the grown birds. 



This hawk can usually be told by its 

 flight, which is accomplished by three or 

 four sharp flaps and a short sail, repeated 

 as long as it is in sight. When it soars, 

 its circles are small, and the long tail 

 ■ and rounded wings give it a totally dif- 

 ferent appearance from the "soaring 

 hawks" of the red-tail and red-shoulder 

 type. It is almost the exact counterpart 



