ELLIOTT COVES. 21 
attacks upon defenceless feathered tribes. A few of the 
very largest raptorial birds, by which I mean Eagles, commit 
occasional. depredations upon weaklings of the shepherd’s or 
herdsman’s care; though as a rule the prey of these impos- 
ing birds is by no means commensurate with that prowess 
they are popularly supposed to possess, being in fact of very 
humble’sort. It is practically difficult if not impossible to 
make the average American citizen draw distinctions with 
a difference in this case of raptorial birds. The agriculturists, 
and most sportsmen, may know a Hawk from a handsaw or 
a pitchfork, possibly a Hawk from a hernsaw or Heron, but 
do not know a Hawk from any other Hawk except that big 
ones are Hen-hawks or Chicken-hawks, and little ones are 
Pigeon-hawks or Sparrow-hawks ; while Owls are all one Owl 
for such persons. I also suspect that few legislators know 
that Hawks with toothed beaks, and those with long fan- 
shaped tails and short rounded wings, are the ones chiefly 
destructive to insectivorous birds, all other kinds being largely 
or chiefly destructive to noxious small mammals. The up- 
shot of the matter is, that the order Rajfores, taken as a 
whole, is vastly more beneficial than injurious to man’s in- 
terests ; and the practical compromise in the case should be, 
that all birds of prey should be protected by law in all our 
states and territories, at all seasons of the year. 
It is not probable that our useful insectivorous birds find 
their worst feathered enemies in the raptorial order, even in 
the genera Falco and Accipiter. That specious, unprincipled, 
and irrepressible libertine, so fair to see, like many a human 
rake—the Blue Jay, and every riotous robber of the tribe to 
which Cyanocitia cristata belongs, are indictable at criminal 
law for the mischief they make among peaceable songsters, 
by breaking up happy homes and sucking eggs. The whole 
family Corvide, in fact, have deservedly a bad name in this 
regard. They are insectivorous, to some extent, but best 
described, in respect of their regimen, as omnivorous ; nothing 
eatable comes amiss with them, and all Ravens, Crows, Pies 
