32 
The Marsh Hawk 
streams, such as the Ohio and Mississippi, at the approach of winter, 
as if bent on going southward, but have become assured that they were 
merely attracted by the vast multitude of finches or sparrows of various , 
sorts which are then advancing in that direction. 
In winter, the notes which the Marsh Hawk emits while on wing are 
sharp, and sound like the syllables bee, bee, bee, the first slightly pro- 
nounced, the last louder, much prolonged, and ending plaintively. During 
the love-season, its cry more resembles that of our Pigeon Hawk, 
especially when the males meet, they being apparently tenacious of their 
assumed right to a certain locality, as well as to the female of their choice. 
This hawk should be most rigidly protected, as all the facts obtained 
show it to be one of the most useful of the family, and one which has a 
very high economic value. Its food consists largely of small rodents, as j 
meadow-mice, small squirrels, young rabbits and ground-squirrels. It is j 
of particular value in the Prairie States, as it is the inveterate enemy of 
the gopher, an animal that does an enormous amount of damage to crops. 
It feeds largely, also, on small lizards, frogs, snakes, and insects. It does, I 
to a small extent, hunt and capture song-birds, and 
Sd-viec now an( j then seizes game-birds or poultry ; but, as 
Dr. Fisher remarks, its economic value as a destroyer 
of rodents is so great that its slight irregularities should be pardoned. 
“Unfortunately, however, the farmer and the sportsman shoot it 
down at sight, regardless or ignorant of the fact that it preserves an 
immense quantity of grain, thousands of fruit-trees, and innumerable 
nests of game-birds by destroying the vermin which eat the grain, girdle 
the trees, and devour the eggs and young of the birds. The Marsh 
Hawk is unquestionably one of the most beneficial, as it is one of our 
most abundant hawks, and its presence and increase should be encouraged 
in every way possible, not only by protecting it by law, but by disseminat- j 
ing a knowledge of the benefits it confers. It is probably the most active 
and determined foe of meadow-mice and ground-squirrels, destroying 
greater numbers of these pests than any other species of hawk, and this 
fact alone should entitle it to protection.” 
These strong statements are supported not only by the observations 
of wise men in the field, but by the scientific study of the stomach- 
contents of several hundred examples of the species killed in various parts 
of the country, and at all seasons of the year. A farmer who wantonly 1 
kills a Marsh Hawk is doing himself a great injury. 
Classification and Distribution 
The Marsh Hawk belongs to the Order Raptores, suborder F ale ones, and 
Family Buteonid’ce. Its scientific name is Circus hudsonius. Its habitat extends over 
substantially the whole of North America. It winters southward from Iowa, the 
Ohio Valley and southern New York in the East, to Cuba, the Bahamas and 
Colombia. 
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