APPENDIX. 
337 
not only ought not to be exterminated, but they should be placed upon the list of 
birds protected by law. 
“ I am, very truly yours, 
“ H. W. Henshaw.” 
“Washington, D. C., Marchs, 1886. 
“ Dr. B. H. Warren : 
“Dear Sir: Responding to your request for my opinion respecting the useful- 
ness of hawks and owls, regarded from an agricultural or other economic stand- 
point, I beg to say that I consider these liirds highly beneficial and worthy of protec- 
tive legislation. 
“ The number of poultry and of useful insectivorous birds which hawks and owls 
destroy is insignificant in comparison with the quantity of noxious rodents which 
they consume. Owls are particularly serviceable in this respect, and next after them 
come the buzzards. Most birds of prey likewise consume enormous numbers of in- 
sects, among which is a large proportion of noxious kinds. 
“Very truly yours, 
“Elliott Coues, 
“ V. P. A. O. U., etc." 
“Smithsonian Institution, 
“Washington, D. C., Marchs, 1886. 
“ B. H. Warren, M. D., Ornithologist Pennsylvania State Board of Agriculture, 
West Chester, Pa. : 
“ Dear Sir : Your letter of recent date requesting my opinion of the act (No. 109) 
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania relative to the premiums paid for the de- 
struction of certain species of birds and mammals, alleged to be injurious and classed 
as noxious within the meaning of that act, is at hand. 
“ I must confess a surprise at the truly lamentable ignorance of the framer of that 
act in regard to the supposed noxious character of the hawks and owls, upon whose 
lives a premium has been set for their destruction. 
“ It is well known that no more beneficial bird exists than the owl whose noctur- 
nal habits render it specially fitted to pursue the smaller rodents, such as mice, 
whose ravages upon the field, grain, root and orchard are so well known that all 
farmers have from time immemorial exclaimed against the destructiveness of 
those quadrupeds whose annual devastatipn causes the money value of the losses 
sustained through their ravages to swell into countless thousands of dollars. 
“The tender growths of the orchard are decorticated by the mice and rabbits, 
which are in turn devoured by the owls sought to be destroyed simply because 
some one desires to become notorious as a lawmaker, and through utter ignorance 
of the subject endeavors to deprive the farmer of his best nocturnal friends, Avhich 
guard the growing crop with zealous care while the owner sleeps to regain a strength 
to enable him to continue the daily toil of protecting his crops from the devastation 
of his sleek-furred enemies, most insidious at niglit. There is not a species of owl 
but that amply repays for the few incursions made at irregular periods upon insolated 
hen roosts. Where a single fowl is thus lost, a thousand mice pay the penalty of 
their lives to the same owl. 
“ The nocturnal habits of the owls render their services far more beneficial than 
may be accurately ascertained. 
“In regard to the hawks their reputation is much exaggerated so far as their in- 
jurious propensity is concerned, yet when truthful evidence is placed in the scales 
the beneficial services of the hawks will preponderate in a most satisfactory manner. 
“Certain species of the diurnal birds of prey are Avell known to feed almost ex- 
clusively upon small rodents, and in fact differing but little from the owls in regard 
22 Birds. 
