179 
beneficial and absolutely harmless; seventeen are mainly beneficial, doing 
decidedly more good than harm; six are about balanced in their effect; 
and six are positively harmful. Only three of these six are common enough 
to warrant consideration and only two, the Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s 
Hawks, are numerous enough in the thickly settled communities to be 
noticed. The Goshawk is a more northern species whose distribution over- 
laps the edges of settlement on the north or in the mountains. 
In making these generalized estimates, it should be understood that 
they are based on averages of the whole country throughout the year. 
Local conditions, time of year, and the particular interests of the locality 
may modify the conclusions. For instance, the Red-tailed Hawk, in 
summer time on the open prairie, is just as efficient and indefatigable a 
gopher killer as the Ferruginous Rough-leg; in the autumn when gophers 
have holed up, and the young, inexperienced Hawks are seeking easily 
captured prey, game and poultry may in some cases suffer slightly from 
their attack. The Bald Eagle is only a rare picturesque feature of the 
landscape over most of Canada, but on the coasts it is often seen in greatly 
increased number and may be a serious enemy of water-fowl. The Marsh 
Hawk is an inverterate mouser, but in early summer the abundance of young 
upland and marsh game has attractions for it. Just where to draw the line 
between generally beneficial and harmful species is thus sometimes difficult 
to decide. 
Raptorial birds, like human beings, tend to subsist on that which is 
first to hand, and a generalization based on one set of conditions will not 
always hold good for others. It is also a natural psychological fact that 
we ourselves feel a definitely known, concrete loss more keenly than we do 
a much greater one that we have more or less unwittingly escaped. The 
loss of a single partly grown chicken to Hawks is more keenly realized 
than the absence of some hundreds of gophers that never intruded them- 
selves upon our consciousness. The one fact is taken as a calamity, the 
other as a matter of course. It is such warping of judgment that we must 
particularly guard against in estimn^ : ag the real value of our Birds of Prey. 
However, the so-called balance of nature has been profoundly dis- 
turbed by civilized man’s appearance on the scene, and the new balance 
in process of establishment may not be altogether to his liking. Civilization 
itself is an unnatural condition, a disturbed balance, and to be retained only 
by constant interference with nature’s attempt to return to a more primitive 
order. Such interference may be absolutely necessary, but, unguided by 
comprehensive understanding of the complicated action and reaction in 
nature’s economy, it is likely to be bungling and, like prodding the works 
of a fine watch without understanding its mechanism, cause evil greater than 
that which it is intended to correct. When, however, a species increases 
to numbers detrimental to man’s interest, it is expedient and justifiable to 
reduce them. But in doing so we should take heed of what we 
undertake and assure ourselves that worse evils will not follow. We have 
largely eliminated the coyote and fox as threats to our flocks, and have 
thereby removed an active check on the gophers and ground-squirrels. 
Some species of Hawks do more damage than good to us and can well be 
destroyed, but care should be taken that discrimination be shown and that 
the harmless or useful ones, the remaining efficient natural control of 
rodent pests, be not involved. 
81064—121 
