6 
MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 28. 
the meadows and fields much like the Marsh Hawk, though their rounded 
instead of pointed wings, broad instead of narrow tail, their more 
leisurely manner, and the absence of conspicuous white rump mark 
make them easily separable from that species. Their principal food is 
mice and other small or open ground rodents and they lack the agility 
necessary for the successful pursuit of more active game. Throughout 
the prairie provinces they are inveterate gopher hunters and the number 
of these pests estimated to be taken *by them awakens astonishment. 
During the summer of 1917 the writer was on the Red Deer river, 
Alberta, where this class of hawks was very numerous. A considerable 
number were taken and many nests examined none of which showed any 
indication of other food than gophers. Great numbers were*seen daily 
and without exception all appeared to be engaged in hunting these pests. 
In a little hollow by one Rough-leg nest was found nearly a bushel of 
dried scraps and fragments of gophers, the discarded remains of innumer- 
able meals. The number of gophers represented was not counted but 
must have been several hundred and debris scraps of many more must 
have fallen over the other edges of the nest ledge, and rolled down the 
face of the cliff. A conservative estimate of the requirements of a 
family of these large hawks is surprising in its results. Two adults 
from spring arrival to birth of young (three months) require a gopher a 
day, making a total of 90; two adults and four young average three 
per day for two months, a total of 180; six practically adult birds for 
one month average one per day each (for growing birds require more 
food than old), a total of 180. Thus the grand total for one family for 
the summer season would be 350 gophers. A single gopher under 
favourable circumstances can and does destroy in the neighbourhood of 
one bushel of wheat. Supposing that one-tenth of this can be charged 
against the average gopher we still have some thirty- five bushels of 
grain as the value of one family of these large hawks. At $2.20 per 
bushel, the present price of wheat fixed by the government, this makes 
the very substantial amount of $77. 
It is true that some of these hawks take an occasional fowl or game 
bird, but of 630 stomachs examined, of the species under consideration, 
only 54 (Red-tails) contained fowl or game birds. Of these, 34 were 
taken in late autumn, winter, or early spring when gophers were not 
procurable, and the remaining 20 were from eastern localities where 
gophers do not occur. In the itemized record given, every bird taken 
in gopher 'country had fed upon rodent species almost exclusively. 
It is evident that in the prairie provinces at least, this group of large 
hawks is wholly beneficial to the farmer and they should receive 
every encouragement and protection. 
The separation between these four Buzzard Hawks is complicated 
