AUO. 23, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
14B 
ber. It can be easily distinguished by its •white rump and 
its habit of beating low over the meadows, for it is an 
indefatigable mouser. Meadow mice, rabbits and squir- 
rels are its favorite quarry. 
Red-Tailed Hawk, Hen Hawk. 
This name, which the bird does not deserve, is probably 
responsible for much of the false opinion regarding it. 
Dr. Fisher says: "While fully 66 per cent, of the red-tail's 
food consists of mammals, not more than 7 per cent, con- 
sists of poultry, and it is possible that a large proportion of 
the poultry and game captured by it and the other buzzard 
hawks is made up of old, diseased or otherwise disabled 
fowls, so preventing their interbreeding with the sound 
stock and hindering the spread of fatal epidemics." 
Among other things, the red-tail eats ground squirrels, 
rabbits, mice and rats. 
Red-Shouldered Hawk. 
This useful bird's list of food includes mice, snakes, 
grasshoppers, earthworms, snails, spiders and centipedes. 
Ninety per cent, of its food is composed of injurious 
mammals and insects. 
Sparrow Hawk. 
Grasshoppers, crickets and other insects form the chief 
food of the sparrow hawk during the warm months, and 
mice during the rest of the year. 
Swainson's Hawk. 
This bird is the great grasshopper destroyer of the "West. 
It is estimated that in a month 800 of these birds — and 
they go in large flocks— save sixty tons of produce that 
the grasshoppers would have destroyed. 
Long-Eared Owl, 
The long-eared owl is an industrious mouser and 
molests comparatively few birds, As it is one of the 
commonest owls, the good it does must be very great. 
Barred Owl. 
Although this bird has a bad reputation, only 4^ per 
cent, of its food is poultry and game, and if the chickens 
were shut up at night it would not do even this amount 
of harm. Most of its food is made up of small mammals, 
many of them the worst enemies we have. It also eats 
large numbers of injurious insects. 
Screech Owl. 
Nearly three-fourths of its food is of injurious mam- 
mals and insects, including grasshoppers, crickets and 
cutworms, mice and rats. 
Barn Owl. 
The food of the barn owl consists almost exclusively of 
mammals, such as gophers, the common rat and cotton 
rat, mice and shrews. From the nest of one pair of owls 
454 skulls were taken, of which 235 were meadow mice 
and 179 house mice. Six hundred and seventy-five "pel- 
lets" or rejects of the barn owl, taken from one of the 
towers of the Smithsonian Institution by Dr. A. K. 
Fisher, contained the remains of 1,831 mammals, birds 
and batracbians, as follows: Rabbits 1, rats 134, mice 
1,596, short-tailed shrews 54, moles 1, bats 1, small birds 
32, frogs 3. In other words, mice constituted 93 per cent, 
of the food of these owls. 
English Sparrow. 
It seems remarkable that the sparrow should ever have 
been introduced into the United States, for the English 
had already been fifty years in trying to destroy the pest; 
and in Australia the injury done by the sparrow had been 
so serious that the bird became the dominant factor in 
politics, an election hanging on the question of its ex- 
termination, and the leaders who stood for its active de- 
struction winning the day. 
In the United States we are reaping the results of our 
own ignorance and folly. Since tne bird was introduced 
in 1850 it has become established in thirty-five States and 
five Territories, and has done its worst in driving away 
our native birds and destroying buds, blossoms, fruit and 
grain. 
It has been shown to interfere with seventy kinds of 
our own birds, most of which nest about houses and gar- 
dens and are beneficial to the farm and garden. The ex- 
amination of 533 stomachs shows that, while it eats 
wheat, oats and corn, it has little interest in insects. Of 
the insects which it has been found to eat, forty-seven 
kinds are harmful, while fifty are beneficial, which shows 
how much good ia to be expected from it in destroying 
pests to counterbalance what it does in driving away our 
own birds that live on insects. 
It is clear that the English sparrow should be exter- 
minated, that laws protecting him should be repealed, 
and that some intelligent, systematic action should be 
taken to rid the United States of his obnoxious presence. 
Bounty laws cannot do this, for, aa has been clearly de- 
monstrated, they do more mischief than can easily be 
remedied, as money is usually spent on the heads of the 
valuable birds that have been mistaken for the injurious 
ones. But the work might be effectively done by State 
boards or commissioners, who should hire trained assist- 
ants to destroy the birds and their nests. 
Conclusion. 
So far as it has gone, the examination of the stomach 
contents of birds has proved that, except in rare cases, 
where individuals attack cultivated fruits and grains, our 
native birds merely preserve the balance of nature by de- 
stroying weeds that plague the farmer and by checking 
the insects that destroy the produce of the agriculturist. 
The great value of birds is demonstrated. The question 
is fii-st how to attract them where they have disappeared, 
and then how to protect the crops from their occasionai 
depredations. Mr. Forbush, who has experimented in 
the matter in Massachusetts, both fed the birds and 
planted bushes to attract them. He says: "It is evident 
that a diversity of plants which encourages diversified 
insect life and assures an abundance of fruits and seeds 
as an attraction to birds will insure their presence." 
The cultivated crops can be protected in two ways: 
either by mechanical devices that frighten the birds away 
from the fruit or Tgrain fields, or by the substitution of 
wild or cultivated kinds. To frighten the birds away, 
white twine can be strung across berry beds, string hung 
with bits of glittering waste tin over fields, while stuffed 
hawks and cats can be kept in orchards. To attract the 
birds from cultivated fruit it is well to plant some wild 
fruit that will bear during the weeks when the birds eat 
the garden or orchard crops. In this connection Mr, For- 
bush says: "I wish particularly to note the fact that the 
mulberry trees, which ripen their berries in June, proved 
to be a protection to the cultivated cherries, as the fruit- 
eating birds seem to prefer them to the cultivated cherries, 
perhaps because they ripen somewhat earlier"; and he 
adds, "I believe it would be wise for the farmer to plant 
rows of these trees near his orchard, and it is possible that 
the early June berry or shadberry might also be useful in 
this respect." 
Prof. Beal suggests planting berry bushes along the 
roads and fences and between grain fields. 
To protect strawberries and cherries (May and June), 
plant Russian mulbei'ry and June berry or shadberry. 
8PAKK0W HAWKS. 
To protect raspberries and blackberries (July and Au- 
gust), plant mulberry, buckthorn, elder and choke 
cherry. 
To protect apples, peaches, grapes (September and Octo- 
ber), plant choke cherries, elder, wild black cherry and 
Virginia creeper. 
To protect winter fruits, plant Virginia creeper, dog- 
wood, mountain ash, bittersweet, viburnum, hackberry, 
bayberry and pokeberry. 
Birds that eat mulberries are the flycatchers, warblers, 
vireos, cuckoos, blackbirds, orioles, finches, sparrows, 
tanagers, waxwings, catbirds, bluebirds and thrushes. 
KKD-TAir,BD HAW. 
Birds that eat the potato beetle are the rose-breasted 
grosbeak, cuckoo and quail. 
Birds that eat the tent caterpillar (which does most harm 
to apple and cherry trees) are the crow, chickadee, oriole, 
red-eyed vireo, yellow-billed cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, 
chipping sparrow and yellow warbler. 
Birds that eat the out worm (which eats off corn, etc., 
before it is fairly started in the spring, and is very de- 
structive to grass) are the robin, crow, catbird, loggerhead 
shrike, house wren, meadow lark, cowbird, Baltimore 
oriole, brown thrasher and red-winged blackbird. 
Ante (which spread plant-lice, destroy timber and infest 
houses) are the favorite food of the catbird, thrasher, 
house wren and woodpeckers; and are eaten by almost 
all land birds except birds of prey. 
Scale insects (which are a fruit-tree pest, injure oranges, 
olives, etc.) are eaten by the bush tit, woodpeckers and 
cedar bird. 
The May beetle (which ravages forest trees, also injures 
grain and grass lands) is eaten by the hermit thrush, 
wood thrush, robin, meadow lark, brown thrasher, blue- 
bird, catbird, blue jay, crow blackbird, crow, loggerhead 
shrike, mockingbird and gray-cheeked thrush. 
Weevils (which injure grain, forage and market gar- 
dens) are eaten by the crow blackbird, red-winged black- 
bird, Baltimore oriole, catbird, brown thrasher, house 
wren, meadow lark, cowbird, bluebird, robin, swallows, 
flycatchers, mockingbird, woodpeckers, wood thrush, 
Alice's thrush and scarlet tanager. 
The chinch bug (which eats grain and wheat) is eaten 
by the brown thrasher, meadow lark, catbird, red- eyed 
vireo, robin and Bob White. 
The wire worm (which causes heavy losses in the corn- 
field) is eaten by the red-winged blackbird, crow black- 
bird, crow, woodpeckers, brown thrasher, scarlet tanager, 
robin, catbird, Baltimore oriole, meadow lark and cow- 
bird. 
Crane flies (which eat grass roots in the hay fields) are 
eaten by the robin, catbird, wood thrush, gray-cheeked 
thrush, olive-backed thrush, crow, crow blackbird and 
red- winged blackbird. 
The soldier bug is eaten by the robin, bluebird, crow 
blackbird, crow, catbird, house wren, red-winged black- 
bird, Baltimore oriole and meadow lark. 
Birds that eat the cotton worm are the bluebird, blue- 
jay, red-winged blackbird, thrush, prairie chicken, quail, 
kildee, bobolink, mockingbird, cardinal and cuckoo. 
Gypsy Moth. — Mr. Forbush, ornithologist of the Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Agriculture, gives the following 
list of birds seen to feed on the gypsy moth: Yellow-billed 
cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, hairy woodpecker, downy 
woodpecker, pigeon woodpecker, kingbird, great crested 
flycatcher, phoebe, wood pewee, least flycatcher, bluejay, 
crow, Baltimore oriole, purple grackle or crow blackbird, 
chipping sparrow, chewink, rose breasted grosbeak, indi- 
go bird, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, yellow-throated 
vireo, white-eyed vireo, black-and-white warbler, yellow 
warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, black-throated green 
warbler, oven bird, Maryland yellow-throated warbler, 
American redstart, catbird, brown thrasher, house wren, 
white-breasted nuthatch, chickadee, wood thrush, Amer- 
ican robin, bluebird and English sparrow. 
Birds that eat grasshoppers and crickets are the mock- 
ingbird, thrasher, bluebird, wrens, shore lark, goldfinch, 
longspur, grasshopper sparrow, song sparrow, junco, lark 
sparrow, dickcissel, rose-breasted grosbeak, blue gros- 
beak, indigo bunting, cardinal, chewink, bobolink, cow 
bird, red-winged blackbird, meadow lark, Baltimore ori- 
ole, orchard oriole, rusty blackbird, crow, bluejay, king- 
bird, crow blackbird, whippoorwill, night hawk, swift, 
cuckoo, red-headed woodpecker, flicker, barn owl, great- 
horned owl, marsh hawk, sparrow hawk, gulls, Swainson's 
hawk, quail, shrikes, swallows, vireos, robin and catbird. 
In the Massachusetts Crop Report for July, 1896, Mr. 
William R. Sessions gives a list of the birds he has seen 
feeding on the army worm during the present summer: 
Kingbird, phoebe, bobolink, cowbird, red-winged black- 
bird, Baltimore oriole, crow blackbird, chipping sparrow, 
robin. 
BREEDING BEAVER IN WASHINGTON. 
It will be remembered that about one and a half years 
ago Mr, Elwood Hofer brought on from the Yellowstone 
National Park a number of beaver for the National Zoo- 
logical Park in Washington, which were afterward- 
turned loose there in a pen especially provided for them. 
Through this inclosure a little stream of water runs and 
the beaver make themselves very much at home, build- 
ing dams and houses and seeming to thrive there. The 
story of the capture of these beaver was written up by 
Mr. Hofer and published in Fokest and Stream not many 
months ago. 
It is extremely gratifying to learn that these beaver 
bred this spring and that the young ones now are to be 
seen almost daily. This was anticipated, for at the time 
of the rut the beaver fought more or less and one of them 
subsequently died from injuries received in fighting. 
For along time Mr. W. H. Blackburne, the head keeper 
at the Park, has been on the watch for young beaver, but 
it was not until the latter part of July that any were seen. 
In fact Mr. Blackburne has been looking so long that he 
became pretty much discouraged and had almost given 
up the belief that he had held that the beaver had bred. 
However, one evening about 7 o'clock in the latter part 
of July, just as Mr. Blackburne was about to leave for 
home, he saw a small animal dart out into the stream from 
the bank and begin to swim around in a circle aa fast as 
it could. At first Mr. Blackburne thought it a muskrat, 
which animals are very abundant about the dams, but 
two or three minutes later a second animal like the first 
darted out and both swam around as fast as they could, 
dashing along as if they did not know which way to go or 
what to do. After circling about for a moment they 
would slap the water with their little tails, dive down, 
come up, circle around again and then again slap the 
water and dive. This play they kept up for some time, 
in fact until it got quite dusky. 
These little beaver are about half as large as a muskrat, 
and each little tail is slightly larger than a tablespoon. 
When they were first seen they did not attempt to leave 
the water. Now they are becoming quite tame and come 
with the old ones after their bread every evening about 
7 o'clock. 
Wolf and Coyote Habits. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The $3 bounty which this State is paying for wolves 
and coyotes has thinned the ranks of these animals in the 
past two years and furnishes a lucrative business to a 
great many wolf era, some of them making $500 and $600 
a season. 
The old method of poisoning these animals has practi- 
cally been abandoned, as they seem to avoid bait which 
has been strychnined, or — if they do occasionally eat it — 
the poison seems to have no effect on them. Now, the 
most successful way to capture them is to dig out their 
dens and knock the young in the head. 
Conversing with some professional wolfers the other 
day, they informed me that while coyotes den up any- 
where on the prairie, often five or more miles from 
water, the wolves never make their den more than 200 or 
300yds. from it; that one den suffices the coyotes in which 
to rear their young, but that wolves move two and three 
times, digging new holes for their young. 
The offal about the coyote dens consists solely of prairie 
dogs, ground squirrels and an occasional rabbit or bird. 
The wolves, however, feed their young on calves and 
colts, and the stench of the decaying meat is said to be 
the cause of theu' moving their dens. J. W. Schultz. 
Kipp, Montana, 
