374 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 5, 1910. 
Hawks and Owls in Massachusetts. 
East Wareham, Mass., Feb. 7 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: May I add a few observations to 
the interesting discussion about hawks? 
From the poultry man’s point of view we can 
eliminate several species, as they do not come 
very near buildings nor seem to care for domes¬ 
tic fowls. 
Of the few hawks that do molest poultry in 
New England, Cooper’s is usually credited with 
the most damage, and this, taking the whole ter¬ 
ritory, is probably true. In our locality I have 
found that the marsh hawk is fully as bad, if 
not worse. In the year 1907 these hawks killed 
300 fowl—chickens mostly—for us. I know all 
about the circumstances and the efforts we took 
to save the chickens and kill off the hawks. We 
ran four incubators, 360 egg size, and of course 
hatched out a good many chicks. It was our in¬ 
tention to raise 300 pullets for our own breed¬ 
ing pens. To do this we brought out a thousand 
chickens, as it is well known that the percentage 
of males among those that mature is from 60 
to 70 per cent. In order to get the best breed¬ 
ing stock it is necessary that the chickens have 
a free range after leaving the brooders or hens. 
We set twenty-four hens at the same time with 
a 360 egg machine, giving the hens the combined 
hatch. When the sitting was about two weeks 
along, we put six more hens on some infertile 
eggs saved from a former clean up of incuba¬ 
tors. Fertile eggs from the incubator were sub¬ 
stituted for these on the nineteenth day and some 
480 chickens given to the thirty hens, making 
clutches of sixteen chicks to a hen. The time 
was about May 20 and each hen had a coop of 
her own, to which she returned every night with 
her chickens. The location was in a growth of 
pine with rather open ground, that is to say, an 
old field come up to pines with scant under¬ 
brush, the whole bordering a salt marsh. Truly, 
a choice place for hawks and a splendid one for 
chickens. 
We soon found that it would be impossible 
to raise the flock to maturity or even half of 
those which might survive the ills incident to 
chickenhood. After weaning from their mother 
hens, one flock of twenty, which had grown to 
a pound weight each, was given a house and 
carefully fed, watered and looked after. One 
by one these disappeared. As their numbers 
grew less, they grew more and more timid. 
When we used to go to find them, not a chicken 
could be seen, until we reached the place where 
their water dish was kept; then from a dense 
brush filled with dry leaves the chicks would 
appear. They would run swiftly from one bush 
to another, keeping under all the cover they could 
till they reached the person who went to feed 
them. When this flock was reduced to six mem¬ 
bers we took them home. They were given as 
a sacrifice to keep the hawks away from other 
yards. We tried to shoot the marauder, but did 
not kill an individual, though they were fired at 
several times. 
A Mr. Bumpus, of Carver, Mass., told me that 
a pair of big hawks took 200 small chicks from 
him before he could shoot one of them. He 
tried for a long time and one day, while he was 
in the outside cellarway to his house, one of the 
hawks came near enough. 
To the readers of this it will no doubt seem 
an easy matter to watch and kill a bird that has 
developed the habit of coming for chicks with 
regularity. In the case of one yard it might be, 
but with twenty or more flocks spread over sev¬ 
eral acres of wooded land, it is a difficult prob¬ 
lem. It may be urged that we tempted the depre¬ 
dations by exposing our fowls in the very hunt¬ 
ing grounds of the hawks. This would be no 
argument for hawk protection with a poultry 
man. 
It was common practice years ago for our 
poultry raisers to send down the cape for old 
fish nets, condemned pounds and weirs, and of 
these make covered yards to bring up the small 
chickens in safety. I have known instances 
where a gunner has been paid to watch for and 
shoot a particular hawk that was making daily 
visits to a yard. This bird was a Cooper’s hawk. 
It is quite safe to assume that an examination 
of the stomachs of any one of these marauders 
would have shown chickens. The sharp-shinned 
hawk—which is seemingly a half-sized edition of 
Cooper’s—is a pest only at thp time chickens are 
quite small, but this time may extend from 
March till July or August. They are not com¬ 
mon in this particular locality. Neither of the 
buzzards is common and they are not very apt 
to take chickens, though I have seen one swoop 
into my yard for a small chick which he missed. 
Another time I saw one dash into a flock of 
grown fowl that were huddled in the sun by a 
stone wall. He raised a cloud of feathers, gave 
the fowls a great fright and scattered them in 
every direction. We were seated at dinner at 
the time and a bantam cock came in the door 
and took refuge under the table, all the time 
squawking in great fear. 
The goshawk comes so late in the season and 
goes away so early that he is no factor in the 
troubles of chicken raising. That he will take 
adult fowl I know from experience. I surprised 
one that had just killed a six-pound hen. He 
could not carry the carcass off and I set the 
steel trap by it and caught the hawk. This hawk 
is a great enemy to pheasants, as they are very 
conspicuous in the winter when there is snow, 
and they are in the open looking for weed seeds. 
I have known a Cooper’s hawk to kill an adu.t 
ring-necked pheasant. I was amused this last 
fall when one of these hawks tried to catch a 
kingfisher. The kingfisher’s reel sounded up as 
though he had a strike, but he did not get one. 
We do not have the great falcons on Cape Cod 
and may not consider them as pests, but in other 
parts of the country I have seen fine work done 
by them when after game. 
In a treeless country it is much easier to keep 
hawks off. There, too, is where they are of 
benefit, for it is the treeless country that is in¬ 
fested with gophers and mice, and it is certain 
that the stomachs of hawks shot there would 
show a large per cent of mice and gophers. 
The little rusty-crowned falcon of the Western 
prairie is a mouser and cricketer, but I have seen 
one sit on a prostrate chicken and bear down 
with repeated hitches to make his talons pene¬ 
trate deeper. With each hitch the chicken gave 
a piercing yip. I shot at him twice with a pistol 
before he would fly, then the chicken got up and 
disappeared under some lumber. This was right 
in a city. The far West does not seem to have 
so many varieties of predatory birds as New 
England. The very fact that New England’s 
game birds are lessening and her poultry in¬ 
creasing tells the story. The hawks are not 
molested; they are apparent mostly when gun¬ 
ning is out of season and mind. They annoy a 
people who are usually busy about their affairs 
and rarely see the depredator. They perceive 
the loss and perhaps discover the partly eaten 
fowl. More than likely while taking a Sunday 
walk through the nearby woods in June they will 
find a rift of chicken feathers here and there 
where some hawk' has plucked his quarry. I 
have often done this. 
Where trees are scarce a post set in a field 
with a steel frap on top of it will catch an occas¬ 
ional hawk, but it is more likely to catch some 
innocent bird. Sometimes a piece of scythe 
blade fastened on top of a stake will shear off 
the hallux of one and make it difficult for him 
to catch anything. Scarecrows avail but little. 
The hawks get used to them in a short time. A 
persistent robber may be gotten rid of by leav¬ 
ing a prepared chicken for him to take, the 
preparation being composed of lard and strych¬ 
nine rubbed on the chick's head. We tried this 
a few times, but to make it reasonably sure we 
had to confine a great flock in covered yards 
where the hawk could not get them and wait for 
him to take the poisoned one. This scheme 
worked better on rats. 
To sum up our experience: We had 300 hens 
in small flocks in twenty houses, a brooder house 
16 x 70, an incubator cellar 12 x 40 with four 
Cypher incubators 360 egg size, several acres of 
yards, thirty individual coops for hens with 
chicks, eight colony houses for young fowl and 
a dozen other small houses, the whole represent¬ 
ing an investment of about $1,000, which we 
abandoned mainly on account of the difficulty we 
had in raising our breeding stock. The chickens 
intended for market were hatched out so early 
that they were out of the hawks’ way before 
these birds arrived. By this I mean that the 
breeding hawks locate a good spot to get their 
prey and come for it pretty regularly. Before 
this they are not local in their range. I have 
raised several young hawks to maturity and have 
a fair idea of their eating capacity. 
Walter B. S a vary. 
Martins and Their Houses. 
Much has been written of the usefulness of 
the purple martin in destroying noxious insects 
and of the growing scarcity of this bird in cer¬ 
tain localities. Last spring and summer Forest 
and Stream had a number of articles about the 
bird and much interest was expressed in it. 
A paper on this subject, reprinted from issues 
of the Philadelphia Zoological Bulletin and from 
Bird Lore, has recently been sent us. It is en¬ 
titled “The Purple Martin, and Houses for its 
Summer Home.” by J. Warren Jacobs, of 
Waynesboro, Pa., and contains much interest¬ 
ing material on this species. Mr. Jacobs is an 
enthusiastic bird student, a member of the 
American Ornithologists Union and of a num¬ 
ber of other ornithological societies. He is also 
the manager of a concern which makes martin 
houses for sale, and this paper, therefore, gives 
especial attention to the subject, though discuss¬ 
ing very fully the habits of the birds. 
This is the time of the year to make prepara¬ 
tion for the return of the martins and to erect 
houses for their accommodation. The bird is 
one that should be fostered. 
