ELLIOTT COUES. 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 Raptores, 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 Cyanocitta 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 Corvidce, 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 



