USEFUL BIRDS OF PREY. 
IT is claimed that two hundred 
millions of dollars that should 
go to the farmer, the gardner, 
and the fruit grower in the 
United States are lost every 
year by the ravages of insects — that is 
to say, one-tenth of our agricultural 
product is actually destroyed by them. 
The Department of Agriculture has 
made a thorough investigation of this 
subject, and its conclusions are about 
as stated. The ravages of the Gypsy 
Moth in three counties in Massachu- 
setts for several years annually cost 
the state $100,000. " Now, as rain is 
the natural check to drought, so birds 
are the natural check to insects, for 
what are pests to the farmer are 
necessities of life to the bird. It is 
calculated that an average insectivor- 
ous bird destroys 2,400 insects in 
a year ; and when it is remembered 
that there are over 100,000 kinds of 
insects in the United States, the ma- 
jority of which are injurious, and that 
in some cases a single individual in a 
year may become the progenitor of 
several billion descendants, it is seen 
how much good birds do ordinarily by 
simple prevention." All of which has 
reference chiefly to the indispensable- 
ness of preventing by every possible 
means the destruction of the birds 
whose food largely consists of insects. 
But many of our so-called birds of 
prey, which have been thought to be 
the enemies of the agriculturist and 
have hence been ruthlessly destroyed, 
are equally beneficial. Dr. Fisher, an 
authority on the subject, in referring 
to the injustice which has been done 
to many of the best friends of the farm 
and garden, says : 
" The birds of prey, the majority of 
which labor night and day to destroy 
the enemies of the husbandman, are 
persecuted unceasingly. This has 
especially been the case with the Hawk 
family, only three of the common in- 
land species being harmful. These 
are the Goshawk, Cooper's Hawk, and 
the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the first of 
which is rare in the United States, 
except in winter. Cooper's Hawk, or 
the Chicken Hawk, is the most des- 
tructive, especially to Doves. The 
other Hawks are of great value, one 
of which, the Marsh Hawk, being 
regarded as perhaps more useful than 
any other. It can be easily distin- 
guished by its white rump and its 
habit of beating low over the meadows. 
Meadow Mice, Rabbits, and Squirrels 
are its favorite food. The Red-tailed 
Hawk, or Hen Hawk, is another. It 
does not deserve the name, for accord- 
ing to Dr. Fisher, while fully sixty- 
six per cent of its food consists of 
injurious mammals, not more than 
seven per cent consists of poultry, and 
that it is probable that a large propor- 
tion of the poultry and game captured 
by it and the other Buzzard Hawks is 
made up of old, diseased, or otherwise 
disabled fowls, so preventing their 
interbreeding with the sound stock 
and hindering the spread of fatal epi- 
demics. It eats Ground Squirrels, 
Rabbits, Mice, and Rats. 
The Red-shouldered Hawk, whose 
picture we present to our readers, is as 
useful as it is beautiful, in fact ninety 
per cent, of its food is composed of 
injurious mammals and insects. 
The Sparrow Hawk (See Birds, vol. 
3, p. 107) is another useful member of 
this family. In the warm months 
Grasshoppers, Crickets, and other in- 
sects compose its food, and Mice during 
the rest of the year. 
Swainson's Hawk is said to be the 
great Grasshopper destroyer of the 
west, and it is estimated that in a 
month three hundred of these birds 
save sixty tons of produce that the 
Grasshopper would destroy. 
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