8 THE’ A U-Dw BON 28 UsimissE sions 
years ago there was a great plague of rats and gophers in Manitoba. 
The farmers made an outcry about it to the provincial experimental 
farm, but were told by the investigators that it was their own fault 
since they had made it a practice to shoot any and all hawks. Here 
is the record of the rough-leg: In 202 stomachs there were found 221 
mammals (nearly all mice and rats); 1, poultry; 9, other birds; 8, 
snakes, etc.; and 19, insects. 
Now we come to the so-called accipitrine hawks. Here a different 
story must be told. These are non-soaring, swiftly-flying killers. 
Years ago I once walked over a mountain meadow in Somerset county, 
Pennsylvania, when my attention was suddenly attracted by a loud, 
distressful calling of a red-headed woodpecker. On looking around 
I saw it was flying with all the speed it could muster toward me. A 
sharp-shinned hawk was after and nearly up to it and only within a 
yard or two of me did it turn aside. In another second it would have 
had the poor red-head. Wild animals often turn to man when in 
extreme danger. 
There are three accipiters in North America: the sharp-shinned, 
Cooper’s hawk and the goshawk. Of these the sharp-shinned is the 
smallest. It is about the size of a husky blue jay or of a flicker. It 
is a lucky thing for the chickens that it is not larger, as it is extremely 
destructive to small birds up to the size of birds as large as itself. 
Because of its small size it cannot take away chickens unless they be 
day-old or week-old chicks. 
Cooper’s hawk is larger but equally destructive to feathered life, 
including poultry. This is the one that has brought the bad reputa- 
tion to all hawks. One of these marauders will sally forth from its 
protecting woods and by swift and low flight strike down a chicken 
in a farmer’s poultry yard, and equally swiftly make away with its 
kill. The farmer, rushing out upon hearing the commotion, will see 
a red-tail or a red-shouldered peacefully soaring above, thinks that 
it is the culprit and vows vengeance. Hence the term “chicken-hawk’”’ 
and the dead buteos nailed on the barn doors. But is it sensible and 
fair to kill all hawks because of the misdeeds of one or two? These 
hawks, with the exception of the goshawk, are not as large as the 
buteos, neither are they so broad-shouldered, but streamlined, short- 
winged and long-tailed. The adults are blue on the back and barred 
with brown below. When flying overhead they flap their wings sev- 
eral times and then glide forward; they do not soar. 
The third one of these feathered gangsters, the goshawk, we 
might pass over, as it breeds and lives almost entirely in Canada and 
in the wildest regions of our Northern States, where there are few 
poultry yards. There the snowshoe rabbit is its principal item of 
food, supplemented by the ruffed grouse and other forms of wildlife. 
However, once every ten to fifteen years the number of rabbits dwin- 
dles to such an extent that the goshawk would starve. Therefore he 
makes periodical incursions into the United States, where he creates 
pandemonium in the chicken yards, due to his large size, fearlessness 
and voracity. The adults are beautiful birds, bluish above with fine 
