lands or streams. When his sharp eyes detect some destructive rodent beneath 

 him, he raises his long wings vertically over his back, quickly d^escends and, with 

 outstretched talons, seizes the coveted prize. He may also be known by the large 

 white area above the base of the tail. The red tailed hawk and the red shouldered 

 hawk are both large and are both unfortunately known as "hen hawks'* or ''chicken 

 hawks." Only an occasional specimen is known to destroy poultry, and perhaps 

 none of either species would do so if the poultry were kept properlv housed or 

 penned up. 



Owls even have a better record than hawks. As soon as hawks are driven to 

 roost by the darkness, owls begin their nightly search for nocturnal rodents and 

 insects. These large, bright-eyed birds are so quiet and so "mysterious'' in their 

 habits that their wild cries or "cold hooting calls" make superstitious people shud- 

 der. Unlike other birds, owls see us with both eyes at once. This gives them 

 something of a "human expression" and makes them look wise. But their large 

 eyes serve the owl most effectively in the darkness. Ry means of them he 

 locates and captures almost fabulous numbers of mice, rats, shrews, meadow mice, 

 insects, etc. 



The screech owl is especially fond of insects and mice. When his tremulous 

 cry is heard at night it is ''high time" for mice and rats to hunt their holes, for 

 owls will get them "if they don't watch out." The long-eared owls are also 

 famous mousers. More than a hundred pellets thrown out of the mouth (regurgi- 

 tated) by a pair of these owls contained fur in every instance, while not one pellet 

 contained feathers. This pair certainly preferred rodents to birds or poultry. 

 The short-eared owls have much the same record as the marsh hawk and may be 

 found in similar situations, hunting much in the same way as the marsh hawk, 

 particularly on dark, cloudy days. Barred owls are said to do more good than 

 harm, Avhile the curious looking "monkey faced" or barn owl is the best one of 

 all. A. K. Fisher gathered up the pellets dropped near the nest of a pair of 

 barn owls in the tower of the Smithsonian Institution and found in them 454 

 skulls of small animals. These skulls represented 225 destructive meadow mice, 

 179 house mice, twenty rats, twenty shrews, six jumping mice, two pine mice, one 

 star-nosed mole, and one vesper sparrow. Certainly such a record gives the bam 

 owl a right to live. Only the very large "great horned owl" is ever charged with 

 any notable injury, and such charges are very rare. Most people would place him 

 in the class which are neither decidedly beneficial nor harmful. Under the bene- 

 ficial class Fisher groups the marsh hawk, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered haw^k, 

 sparrow hawk, barn owl, long-eared owl, short-eared owl, barred owl, screech owl, 

 snowy owl and several others of less importance. 



Under the heading "Harmful Hawks and Owls," Fisher places the sharp- ' 

 shinned hawk. Cooper's hawk and three others of less consequence in Illinois. But 

 he does not name a single owl as belonging here. He should have left the word 

 "Owls" out of this heading, I believe, since none are really "harmful." 



Dr. C. Hart Merriam estimated that each hawk and owl in Pennsvlvania is 



638 



