148 
The Sharp-shinned Hawk 
of classing all hawks and owls together as injurious is shown by an 
experience at my home at Wareham, Massachusetts. In 1906 a pair 
of Screech Owls built their nest and reared their young in a box put up 
for them in a pine-grove. This grove was a noted Robin-roost and 
many birds nested in the vicinity. During the season the owls killed 
one Robin, a Red-winged Blackbird and several Bluejays, but they sub- 
sisted chiefly on mice, and fed their young mainly with mice. All the 
smaller birds seemed to have entered on an era of prosperity, and were 
more numerous on the farm in 1907 than in 1906. In 1908 we were 
away until July. The Screech Owls had disappeared, and a pair of 
Sharp-shinned Hawks had a nestful of young in the 
D^trucnon of grove. During July and August these hawks so 
harried and destroyed the birds of the neighborhood 
that virtually all were killed or driven away, except two pairs of Song 
Sparrows and a pair of Robins near the house. For the first time 
in our experience, the Robin-roost, which formerly was haunted by hun- 
dreds if not thousands of Robins in summer, was deserted, and the 
cries of the hawks were about the only bird-notes heard in the grove. 
The contrast between the effect produced by the owls and that caused 
by the hawks was so marked as to leave no room for doubt regarding 
the utility of the Screech Owl and the harmfulness of the Sharp- 
shinned Hawk. 
With the increase of game-preserves in this country, and the increased 
destruction of vermin, the Sharp-sninned Hawk must gradually disappear, 
for the game-keeper is his inveterate enemy. Let us hope that the useful 
and comparatively harmless kinds of hawks and owls may not suffer 
from the game-keeper’s activity, because of the faults of the three species 
of true bird-hawks, but that such discrimination may be used by the 
game-keeper, the farmer, and the sportsman, that the real culprits will 
be the only sufferers. 
Classification and Distribution 
The Sharp-shinned Hawk belongs to the Order Raptores, Suborder Falcones, 
Family Buteonidce. Its scientific name is Accipiter velox. It resides in Summer 
and breeds throughout all temperate and sub-arctic North America ; and it winters 
from British Columbia, Iowa, and the Great Lakes southward to Panama. 
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