252 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 
a steel trap, but not until he and his mate had destroyed some fifty 
young chickens. In ,one day these two hawks killed twefve 
chickens. 
Audubon says: “This marauder sometimes attacks birds far 
superior to itself in weight and sometimes possessed of a courage 
and strength equal to its own. As I was one morning observing 
the motions of some parakests, near Brayon Sara, in Louisiana, 
in the month of November, I heard a cock crowing not far from me 
and in sight of a farm house. The next moment the hawk flew past 
me and so close that I might have touched it with the barrel of my 
gun had I been prepared. Not more than a few seconds elapsed 
before I heard the cackling of the hens and the war cry of the cock, 
and at the same time observed the hawk rising, as if without effort, 
i few yards in the air and again falling toward the ground with the 
rapidity of lightning. I proceeded to the spot and found the hawk 
grappled to the body of the cock, both tumbling over and over and 
paying no attention to me as I approached. Desirous of seeing 
the result, I remained still until, perceiving that the hawk had given 
a fatal squeeze to the brave cock. IT ran to secure the former 
but the marauder had kept a hawk’s eye upon me, and, disengaging 
himself rose in the air in full confidence. The next moment I pulled 
the trigger and he fell dead.” 
Dr. Coues (Birds of Northwest) says, in speaking of this hawk: 
“Possessed of spirit commensurate with its physical powers, it preys 
upon game little if any humbler than that of our more powerful 
falcons. It attacks and destroys hares, grouse, teal, and even the 
young of larger ducks * * * besides capturing the usual va- 
riety of sinaller birds and quadrupeds. It occasionally seizes upon 
reptiles or picks up insects.” 
The following quotations from Dr. Fisher’s Hawk and Owl Bulle- 
tin No. 8, page 39, show how extensively the Cooper’s Hawk feeds 
on game and domestic birds. Nuttall says: “His food appears 
principally to be of various kinds; from the sparrow to the ruffed 
grouse, all contribute to his rapacious appetite. * * * His dep- 
redations among domestie fowls are very destructive.” (Land Birds, 
1832, p. 90.) 
Mr. H. Nehrling says: “This very common and impudent robber 
is the most destructive of the Raptores to the barn-yard fowls; in 
a short time all the young chickens, turkeys and ducks are killed by 
in” (Bull Nutt Ornith. Club, Vol. Villy S2isp 17s) 
Mr. Thomas Mcllwaith says: “This is one of the chicken hawks, 
and it well deserves the name, from the havoc it makes among the 
poultry.” (Birds of Ontario, p. 137.) 
“Mr. Henshaw informs me that the Cooper’s Hawk is very par- 
tial to its quail’s flesh in California and the southern territories, 
