^ ^ HAWKS AND OWLS. 



'rhaJ^^■'i,l%'6'^, p.SV.%. WiNSLOw, A. T. 



Editor Ambricas- Fikld: — Notwithstanding the fact 

 that it seems to be "the thing" among the correspondents of 

 the American Field to take up cudgels in defense of a 

 majority of the species of hawks and buzzards, I intend 

 giving a few instances of the game destroying propensities 

 of several birds which one or two writers have tried to 

 whitewash. 



In May, 1880, while riding from Albuquerque, N. M., to 

 a ranch on the Rio Parco, I saw a Ferrugineous buzzard 

 {Ardiiluteaferrugineus) dash into a clump of sage brush 

 which stood about fifty feet from the trail. In a moment a 

 jackrabbit emerged with the buzzard riding on his 

 back ; inside of fifty yards the hare fell, and the hawk 

 began his meal, which I soon terminated. 



In the Fall of 1881, while snipe shooting near Albu- 

 qurque, my dog stood ; I flushed and killed a snipe ; at the 

 report a queer looking bird, with what appeared to be two 

 bodies rose slowly from the grass and fell to my second 

 barrel ; on going up to it I found a pigeon hawk {Falao 

 cohimbarius) whose claws yet grasped the head of a warm 

 newly killed Wilson snipe. That same "Winter I killed a 

 red-tailed buzzard (Buteo horealis) which was feeding on 

 another snipe. 



In December, 1882, I flushed near the same town a bevy 

 of scaled quails {GalUpepla squamata) ; they pitched about 

 one hundred and fifty yards away and began to run. While 

 my dog was retrieving the two I had killed, I saw, much to 

 my surprise, two marsh harriers {Gircus cyaneus hudsonius) 

 glide up ajid pitc 4 into th e midst of the bevy. Of course 

 tfie quails'scaXtered and flew clear out of sight. The hawks, 

 however, remained on the ground. I walked up to within 

 ten yards, saw that each hawk had his quail, and shot them 

 both. Up to that time I had no idea that the marsh hawk 

 ever bothered quails ; since then, however, I have killed 

 them while feeding on both quails and snipes, and now 

 never let one go. 



In December, 1884, while shooting scaled quails near 

 McCarty's Station on the A. P. R. R., I killed no less than 

 four hawks, which appeared from among the cedars at the 

 report of my gun and seized the fallen birds ; they were : | 

 one sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter fuaeus), two Lanier f al - ' 

 cons {Falco mexicanus), and one Ferrugineous buzzard. 



This past Winter I have killed five red-tailed hawks 

 whose crops were full of fragments of rabbit meat. 



Of course the larger falcons are individually more de- 

 structive, but taking into account the fact that they are 

 not plentiful and also are not Summer residents, I consider 

 the marsh hawk and large buzzards much greater pests than 

 they are. 



In the way of birds not strictly game I have seen marsh 

 hawks kill yellow-legs, rails, and several small sand- | 

 pipers. ^ 



In the owl line of course the great horned owl {Bubo mr- 

 ginianm) kills everything or anything he can master ; but I 

 have, in the early morning, twice flushed the short-eared 

 owl {Asio aecipitrinm) from the remains of quails and have 

 found the flesh and feathers of the same in the owls' 

 crops. 



The evidence to me is conclusive, and barring the spar- 

 row hawk I never spare either hawk or owl. Vindbx. J 



