HAWKS OP THE CANADIAN PRAIRIE PROVINCES. 
13 
fleas and ticks which are carried by these animals. They not only carry 
the infected insects from place to place but taking the disease themselves 
become thereby foci of infection to both cattle and their owners. The 
gopher question is, therefore, a serious one. 
Another pest of the prairie provinces is the coyote which is not 
only a confirmed chicken killer but a serious menace to sheep raisers. 
In nearly all the provinces bounties are placed upon its head and one of 
the sources of income to many prairie dwellers is the bounty and pelt 
values obtained in reducing its numbers. The natural food of the 
coyote is gophers and rabbits and any market! reduction in coyote 
numbers is bound to be reflected in an increase in the number of both 
these pests. If, therefore, the coyote is exterminated the history of 
farming in the mid-west will be a constant struggle against an increasing 
number of gophers unless some other means is found of controlling them. 
Poisoning when thoroughly done is elleelual, but as long as a pair of 
gophers remain it is only a matter of a few years before they become as 
numerous as ever. 
The hawks, especially the large summer buteos, seem to be the 
natural substitutes for the coyotes. Being migrating they are picscnt 
in the southern prairie provinces only in gopher season and show a 
marked preference for these animals as food. It must not be supposed 
that hawks can ever entirely exterminate their prey. However, hawks 
can largely take the place of the eliminated coyote and assist in the 
control of the pest. They have advantages over human efforts of trap 
and poison: they are always on the job, they cost practically nothing, 
they attend to wastes that are sources of infection to cultivated land, and 
they go automatically where the food is most plentiful and the need for 
them is greatest. The effect of the noxious hawks upon the prairie 
chicken and grouse is an indication of what a decided assistance such 
aids can be when their efforts are beneficial. 
The gopher question is a serious one, but the importance of grouse 
and game should not be overlooked. T hough game should not be 
regarded primarily as a source of food, that use of it should be consideied 
as well as its more legitimate use as a source of healthful sport and 
recreation. The income derived by dealers, guides, the state, and 
caterers to the sportsmen, is considerable and not to be disregarded. 
For every reason the stock of game should be so conserved as to yield 
its greatest economic usefulness to*the country. 
However strict we can be in our game laws we cannot keep the 
grouse steadily up to their maximum numbers when subject to these 
periodic invasions of birds of prey from the north. Unfortunately, 
when these birds come down the gophers are holed up for the winter, 
otherwise we might hail the intruders as mixed evils, for it seems thai 
