5 2 
THE NATURALIST AND COLLECTOR 
water snail, which abounds in the 
shallow lakes and overflowed sections. 
The swallow-tailed, white-tailed, and 
Mississippi kites feed largely upon rep¬ 
tiles and insects, never attacking birds. 
The swallow-tailed is reported as feed¬ 
ing extensively on cotton worms. If 
this is a common habit, the bird is of 
great value to the Southern planter. 
The Mississippi kite and its white¬ 
tailed ally devour large numbers of liz¬ 
ards, small snakes and insects, espec¬ 
ially grasshoppers and beetles. 
The rough-legged hawk is among the 
most beneficial of all hawks. Meadow 
mice and lemmings form its staple food. 
In this country the lemmings are not 
found, but in the North of Europe they 
occasionally form into vast migrating 
and devastating hordes which carry 
destruction to all crops in the country 
passed over. The meadow mouse is 
common in many parts of the United 
States; east of the Mississippi river it is 
the most destructive mammal to agri¬ 
culture. It destroys meadows by tun¬ 
neling under them and eating the roots 
of grass. It also destroys grain and 
various kinds of vegetables, especially 
tubers, but probably does even more 
damage by girdling young trees. 
Nearly allied to the rough-leg is the 
squirrel hawk of the great plains — so 
called on account of its fondness for 
the ground squirrels so destructive in 
the West. Upon these it wages a con- 
tinous warfare, and great is the service 
it performs in keeping their numbers 
in check. Occasionally it eats pocket 
gophers. It is humiliating to think 
how many of the two noble hawks are 
murdered, and to reflect that legis¬ 
lators put a bounty on their heads to 
satisfy the ignorant prejudices of their 
constituents. Even gun clubs are so 
far behind the times as to offer prizes 
to those who kill the greatest number 
of birds of prey. In i892 considerable 
areas in Southeastern Scotland were ' 
overrun by meadow mice, a great : .j 
amount of property being destroyed, 
such invasions may be expected in any , 
country where predaceous mammals j 
and birds are reduced to a minimum in 
the supposed interest of game preser¬ 
vation. This wholly upsets nature’s 
balance, and the in jurious rodents are 
left practically without an enemy to , 
control their increase. 
From its abundance and striking 
appearance the red-tailed hawk is prob-$i 
ably the best known of all the larger 
hawks. It is commonly called ‘‘hen 
hawk,” but the name is misleading, j 
It does occasionally eat poultry, but j 
the quantity is so small in comparison 
with the vast number of destructive 
rodents consumed as to be hardly 
worth mentioning. It prefers small 
mammals and reptiles. Another hawk 
generally called “hen hawk” is the 
red-shouldered hawk, which is very 
valuable to the farmer. It is more 
omnivorus than most birds of prey, 
feeding* on mice, birds, snakes, fish, 
grasshoppers, centipedes, spiders,craw¬ 
fish, earthworms and snails. Not two 
per cent of its food consists of poultry 
or game. 
The food of Swainson’s hawk is much 
the same as that of the two preceding 
species, except that more insects and 
fewer birds are taken. Soon after the 
breeding season these hawks collect 
on the plains of the west, forming 
large flocks, and feed almost ex¬ 
clusively on grasshoppers and crickets. 
If it be assumed that 100 grasshoppers 
are the daily food of one hawk we have 
a grand total of 600,000 for the work of 
a flock of 300 birds in one month. The 
weight of this vast number of insects 
would be about 2000 pounds. Es¬ 
timates by entomologists place the 
