REV. LEANDER S. KEYSER. 43 
make a target for the gunner. His only business was 
supposed to be to make excursions to the farmyard in search 
of billsome messes of domestic fowl. But this timely vol- 
ume shows that not all Hawks are hawkish—at least, they 
do not all feed to any large extent on birds and poultry. 
It is true, the Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cooper’s Hawk 
(Accipiter velox and A. cooperi) have a sweet tooth—or, 
rather, beak—for chicken and small birds of various species ; 
but in the dissection of six stomachs of Harris’ Hawk (Para- 
buteo unicinctus harrisi) not one fowl of any kind was found, 
but only parts of small mammals. The Red-tailed Hawk 
(Buteo borealis) is an exceedingly brisk, strong-winged bird ; 
yet a carefully compiled table showing the contents of 562 
stomachs demonstrates that these birds destroy a hundred 
times as many mice, moles and other harmful small mammals 
as birds and poultry. 
The Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo Lineatus) makes himself 
still less obnoxious and still more useful, living chiefly 
on snakes, beetles, spiders, lizards and grasshoppers, as 
well as mice, shrews and moles. Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo 
swainsoni) seems to avoid the farmyard entirely, finding 
locusts, grasshoppers, beetles, lizards, gophers and sper- 
mophiles more to his taste than domestic fowl. The same 
may be said of the Broad-winged, Rough-legged and Fer- 
ruginous Hawks. As to the Owls, it is simply astonishing 
what secrets are revealed by an examination of craws, 
showing that they are much more reputable birds than most 
people suppose. While some of them occasionally visit 
Farmer Gruffman’s henroost, all of them find their diet 
chiefly in the fields and woods, where mice, chipmunks and 
snakes abound. We think every farmer and sportsman 
ought to study this useful volume, and learn to identify the 
various species of Hawks and Owls before he begins the war 
of extermination, so that he will not unwittingly massacre his 
friends instead of his foes. 
The destruction of beautiful and innocent birds for fashion- 
