116 THE HAWKS AND OWLS OF THE UNITED STATES. 



year is common on the Great Plains. In winter a few hardy indi- 

 viduals remain in southern ^NTew England and New York, but the 

 species is not common as a winter resident until the latitude of Mary- 

 land and Virginia is reached; thence southward it becomes more and 

 more plentiful. In the Mississippi Valley it does not range quite so 

 far north in winter as along the Atlantic, for few are found above the 

 thirty-eighth parallel. Along the Pacific coast it winters considerably 

 further north than in the East. 



The subject of the food of this Hawk is one of great interest, and con- 

 sidered in its economic bearings is one that should be carefully studied. 

 The Sparrow Hawk is almost exclusively insectivorous except when 

 insect food is difficult to obtain. In localities where grasshoppers and 

 crickets are abundant these hawks congregate, often in moderate-sized 

 flocks, and gorge themselves continuously. Earely do they touch any 

 other form of food until, either by the advancing season or other natu- 

 ral causes, the grasshopper crop is so lessened that their hunger can 

 not be appeased without undue exertion. Then other kinds of insects 

 and other forms of life contribute to their fare; and beetles, spiders, 

 mice, shrews, small snakes, lizards, or even birds may be required to 

 bring up the balance. In some places in the West and South telegraph 

 lines pass for miles through treeless plains and savannas. For lack 

 of better perches the Sparrow Hawks often use these poles for resting 

 places, from which they make short trips to pick up a grasshopper or 

 mouse which they carry back to their perch. At times, when grass- 

 hoppers are abundant, such a line of poles is pretty well occupied by 

 these hawks. 



A dozen or more stomachs collected by Mr. Charles W. Eichmond, 

 in Gallatin County, Mont., during the latter part of August and early 

 part of September, 1888, were kindly turned over to this Division for 

 examination. They contained little else than grasshoppers and crickets. 



Mr. W. B. Hall, of Wakeman, Ohio, writes to us on the subject as 

 follows: "The Sparrow Hawk is a most persistent enemy of the grass- 

 hopper tribe. While the so-called Hawk law was in force in Ohio I 

 was township clerk in my native village and issued certificates to the 

 number of eighty-six, forty-six being for the Sparrow Hawk. I exam- 

 ined the stomachs and found forty-five of them to contain the remains 

 of grasshoppers and the elytra of beetles, while the remaining one con- 

 tained the fur and bones of a meadow mouse (Arvicola riparius)." 



Mr. W. E. Saunders writes from London, Canada: " Sparrow Hawks 

 are one of our best grasshopper destroyers ; four out of every live I 

 have killed contained grasshoppers alone." The following from the pen 

 of Mr. H. W. Henshaw substantiates what we have said in regard to 

 its fondness for grasshoppers : " It finds * * * an abundant sup- 

 ply of game in the shape of small insectivorous birds ; but more especially 

 does its food consist of the various kinds of coleopterous insects and 

 grasshoppers, of which it destroys multitudes. In fact 3 this last item 



