NATURAL HISTORY. 



A PLEA FOR THE INNOCENT. 



In spite of all that has been said and 

 written, not one sportsman in 10 will re- 

 frain from shooting any hawk or owl that 

 comes within range of his gun. Some- 

 thing in the name "hawk" seems to sug- 

 gest a robber, destroyer, or thief, to the 

 average 'Nimrod, and he deals with the 

 bird accordingly. On account of some few 

 chickens lost, the farmer is even more 

 eager to kill these persecuted birds than 

 is the sportsman. Downright ignorance 

 is the only explanation of this feeling. I 

 am a great friend and admirer of the so- 

 called birds of prey, or raptorcs, and I 

 beg to urge a thorough study of their 

 habits before one more innocent bird is 

 slaughtered. 



As a class, the raptores are far more 

 beneficial than otherwise. Two species of 

 hawks and one of owls are not worthy of 

 protection, their good qualities not being 

 sufficient to balance the bad ones. These 

 are the Cooper and sharp-shinned hawks, 

 Accipiter cooperii, and Accipiter velox, and 

 the great horned owl, Bubo virginianus. To 

 these 3 species all the blame that is inflict- 

 ed on the whole race virtually belongs. 

 To quote a well-known ornithologist: 

 "The farmer sees a hawk sailing in wide 

 circles above him, uttering its fierce, 

 screaming cries. . . . While he is watch- 

 ing it a sly, low-flying Accipiter slips by 

 him and makes a sudden dash into the 

 poultry yard. The farmer does not dis- 

 criminate. A hawk is a hawk; and shaking 

 his fist at the bird in the air, he vows 

 vengeance at the first opportunity." Such 

 is the general feeling toward these birds, 

 all because of ignorance in regard to their 

 habits, and the belief that "a hawk is a 

 hawk." There are, however, certain char- 

 acteristics, whereby anyone can dis- 

 tinguish the noxious from the harmless 

 species. 



It seems wrong that all these species 

 should suffer for the depredations of 2 or 

 3. Of the 3 Accipiters mentioned, the gos- 

 hawk is so rare it can hardly be held for 

 many of the crimes in this part of the 

 country, leaving the burden on the other 

 2. The Cooper hawk, known also as the 

 pigeon hawk, blue hawk, blue darter, and 

 chicken hawk, is the greatest enemy of the 

 poultry yard. The sharp shinned is too 

 small to do much damage in that direc- 

 tion. It is, however, wantonly destructive 

 of small song birds, and as its favorite 

 morsel seems to be the quail, it is not by 

 any means a desirable species. 



The other species are among the best 



friends man can have. They eat large 

 numbers of meadow mice and red squir- 

 rels, the 2 most persistent grain and corn 

 destroyers the farmer has to deal with, and 

 the number of other small noxious rodents 

 that constitute their bill of fare is surpris- 

 ing. Frogs, snakes, and various insects 

 are also relished by these extremely use- 

 ful birds. Occasionally, when food of this 

 kind is scarce and they are hard pressed 

 by hunger, they will, perhaps, take a 

 chicken or 2, but such cases are rare. The 

 farmer can well afford to reward them now 

 and then for the vast amount of good they 

 ordinarily do for him. It seems impossible, 

 however, to convince him of this. 



An examination of the stomachs of 2,690 

 hawks was made by the Division of 

 Economic Ornithology of the Department 

 of Agriculture, and the results proved the 

 standing of these often misjudged birds. 

 The specimens were taken in all parts of 

 the United States, and at all seasons of 

 the year, and only a small percentage con- 

 tained either poultry or game birds. I 

 cannot give the report in detail, but it 

 was proved that, with the exception of the 

 species above mentioned, the raptorcs are 

 an extremely beneficial class, worthy of all 

 protection the law can give them, instead 

 of being outcasts, ranked with the Eng- 

 lish sparrow. There are still several towns 

 in this country that are giving bounties on 

 the heads of all hawks and owls, thinking 

 they are doing the right thing, when, in 

 reality, they cause the killing of thousands 

 of birds that would protect their crops, and 

 only once in a while get a real culprit. 

 The birds that suffer under this law are 

 for the most part useful. The Cooper and 

 sharp shinned hawks, by reason of their 

 secluded nesting habits and rapid flight, 

 are seldom taken. 



It is not difficult to distinguish the dif- 

 ferent species even at a distance. Each 

 has certain unmistakable characteristics. 

 The first 2 species in my classification have 

 their descriptions in their names. The 

 red tailed is the largest of the race and 

 can be easily recognized by the rich rufus 

 coloring of the tail. This and the red 

 shouldered hawk are the large ones seen 

 so often, high in the air, sailing at times 

 almost out of sight, and are likely to be 

 confused. If their notes can be heard 

 identification is easy, as the former utters 



a long drawn out squeal, kee-e— e— e u, 



while the latter's kee-you, kee-you, is en- 

 tirely different. Then, too, the red tail is 

 always in evidence on the former, while 

 a rufus patch on the latter's shoulder, and 



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