242 
Destructive Insects and Utility of Birds. 
delight is to have a few of them nailed up against the barn-door ; 
they might as profitably nail up their cats (who frequently snatch 
up a fowl or two), for the owl nightly makes away with more 
mice than the very best of cats. In the stomachs of 20 dissected 
owls nothing was found but mice and moles ; the great-eared 
owl {Strix bubo), is however much less deserving of our sympathy, 
for besides frogs, serpents, lizards, mice, (Sec, this bird often falls 
upon barn-door fowls, and useful quadrupeds. A great number 
of diurnal birds of prey, such as the sparrowhawk (^Falco nisus), 
the kite {^Falco milvus), and the harpy {Falco rufus), are mis- 
chievous, for they slaughter indiscriminately the more diminutive 
useful birds, and even the smallest of their class devours as 
many birds as insects. Still the kestril falcon (Falco tinunculus), 
not at all a scarce bird with us, eats so many beetles, grass- 
hoppers, and field-mice, that its utility in this respect amply 
repays the harm it may cause. The same description is ap- 
plicable to the hobby falcon (Falco sabbutes). A flight of these last 
birds lately passed over the Canton de Vaud, and alighted on the 
trees standing round the village of Nouvion. The inhabitants, 
fancying them to be pigeons, killed a few ; but when they saw 
the eagerness with which the bird sought after and devoured 
cockchafers, they soon desisted from their ignorant amusement. 
The most useful, and at the same time most common bird of 
prey is the common ljuzzard (Falco buteo), so often mistaken for 
the injurious goshawk (Falco palambarius) ; it destroys immense 
quantities of rats, mice, snakes, &c. More than 20 mice have 
been found at one time inside one of them, and SteinmuUer once 
dissected a bird of this class, and found no less than 7 Angis 
fj-agilis, and 13 Gryllotalpoi in its stomach. The annual con- 
sumption of one single bird has been computed at about 4000 
mice. Perched upon a bush or high stone, the bird watches for 
hours the precise instant when the mole or rat approaches the 
surfa:ce of the earth ; it then eagerly drops down, inserts its claws 
deeply in the soil, and snatches up the animal. The brown 
mark around the belly, and the heavier flight are signs sufficient 
to distinguish it from the terrible goshawk ; these marks ought to 
be attentively studied. The honey-buzzard (Falco apivorus) is 
also a great mouse-eater, besides which, it also swallows cater- 
pillars, wasps, and horseflies, hooking them out of their nests, 
and devouring them together with their eggs. These two last- 
mentioned buzzards are certainly hurtful to other birds, but their 
utility compensates for all mischief; besides they are heavier, 
slower, and less alert than the goshawk, and therefore do not 
destroy nearly so many victims. 
It is not my intention here to call attention to all the useful 
birds in detail, but merely to some of the most remarkable of 
