ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF OUR BIRDS. 
587 
animals the moment they show their noses, and by sailing low over the ground 
to pick up such as they may find away from home. But I question whether, 
after all, insects do not furnish their principal subsistence. Those that I shot 
after midsummer all had their craws stuffed with grasshoppers.” 
Food: Two whole toads were found in the stomach of one (Richardson).^ 
Three toads were found in the stomach of one (Blakinston). Rabbits, squirrels, 
mice, ducks and white-fish (Dali). Its principal food is grasshoppers, prairie-rats 
and small birds (Brewer). Gophers, mice, small quadrupeds and grasshoppers 
(Coues). 
Mr. W. Hoffman records an instance where an Icterus Bullocki nested withi?i 
eight feet of the nest of a pair of these Hawks, and states that the birds 
appeared to live together in harmony. 
175. Buteo Pennsylvanicus (Wils.), Bp. BROAD-WINGED BUZZARD. 
Gnoup II. Class c. 
Common in the northern portions of the state, where it breeds in the heavy 
timber. ^ 
Food: A specimen taken in Clark county had in its stomach seven large 
lamellicorn beetles and two grasshoppers, together with a few small fragments 
of bones. 
The White-throated Sparrow and other small birds, squirrels and insects 
fWilson). Frogs and species of common field locusts (William Cowper). Small 
birds and quadrupeds, wood frogs and snakes (Audubon). Chickens, ducklings, 
animals and insects. It only attacks birds of a weak nature (Brewer). 
176. Archibuteo lagopus Sancti-Johannis (Gm.), Ridg. AMERICAN ROUGH¬ 
LEGGED HAWK. Group III. Class b. 
This is a northern species, and probably but rarely a summer resident. A few 
are said to spend mild winters in the state. Mr. Nelson states that it arrives in 
large numbers in October in Northeastern Illinois and after a few weeks passes 
further south. Its plumage is owl-like, its flight noiseless, and its search for 
food often continued long into the evening. 
Food: Mice, lame ducks, lizards and frogs (Wilson). It rarely attacks poultry 
(Cooper). Mice, small birds, frogs, etc. (De Kay). Principally mice, moles and 
other small quadrupeds and frogs (Andubon). Mice, wounded ducks and small 
birds (Samuels). Rats (R. H. and F. H. Storer). 
177. Pandion haliaetus (Linn.), Sav. FISH HAWK; OSPREY. Group II. 
Class b. 
This species'is not uncommon along the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers, and 
I observed several among the numerous lakes of Lincoln county in October of 
1877. It is an excellent fisherman and appears to subsist wholly upon the mem¬ 
bers of the finny tribe. It even allows small birds to nest unmolested among 
the coarse sticks of its own nest. So far as its food is concerned, it is wholly in¬ 
jurious, but its destruction of fish, by simply feeding upon them, is not of so 
great moment as to demand an interference with them at present. Should they 
be found to breed troublesome parasites whicli are destructive of food-fish, then 
it may be found necessaiy to hold their numbers at tlie minimum. 
