A-AVcnWy^^az/ine * 
A Of 
Natural • 
- *SciEi\ce. 
VOL. I. 
ABINGDON, ILLINOIS, AUGUST, 1895. 
NO. 3 
The Food Habits of Our Hawks. 
HE rapacious birds are slow 
breeders, rearing only one 
brood in a year. The young 
grow slowly, and need a large 
/ amount of food. To satisfy 
their enormous appetites requires con¬ 
stant foraging on the part of the par¬ 
ents. Even the adults are great eaters, 
gorging to the utmost when they have 
a chance. Taking more food than is 
necessary for immediate use enables 
them to store up force for future emer¬ 
gencies, for they are often required to 
withstand exposures and long fasts, 
especially during inclement weather. 
Hawks and owls are complementary 
to each other. While the former hunt 
by day and keep diurnal mammals in 
check, the latter, whose eyesight is 
keenest during twilight, capture noc¬ 
turnal species. Again, the owls are 
less migratory than the hawks, and 
during the long winter nights they re¬ 
main in the land of ice and snow to 
wage incessant warfare against the lit¬ 
tle enemies of the orchard, the garden, 
and the harvest-fields. 
Owls and hawks often swallow their 
smaller victims entire. The larger 
ones they tear into several pieces, 
swallowing the fragments. After the 
nutritous portion of the food has been 
absorbed, the indigestible parts, such 
as hair, feathers, bones and scales, are 
rolled into a solid ball by the muscles 
of the stomach. These masses, known 
as “pellets,” are thrown up before food 
is taken. The movements of the stom¬ 
ach so shape the pellets that the sharp 
pieces of bone, which might otherwise 
injure the mucous membrane are care¬ 
fully enveloped in a felty covering of 
hair or feathers. The pellets contain 
everything necessary to identify the 
food, and in the case of some of the 
owls which have regular roosting 
places the vast number of pellets that 
accumulate underneath give a perfect 
record of the results of their hunting 
excursions. 
Some species of hawks are wholly 
beneficial, a few are harmful, while 
with others a balance must be struck 
between the good and the evil they do. 
The harmless kinds include the four 
kites. The “everglade kite” is found 
within our borders in Florida only. It 
feeds exclusively on a large fresh- 
