lO PRES At) BiG) BOING UO aie ee 
as happened in 1937 on the River Forest campus. It is a very pretty 
little raptor, upper paris reddish-brown barred with black, tail with 
black subterminal band tipped with white, wings blue also barred 
with black, cheeks and throat white with a black line or crescent across 
the cheek or below the eye, the reddish crown encircled by ashy-blue. 
Nearly all the falcons have that black line below the eyes or behind 
them. 
The little pigeon hawk, nesting in the north, is too rare and too 
small to do any damage. It comes through our states only during 
migration. A larger member of this group is the duck hawk, a feath- 
ered knight of unequalled speed and daring. It is about the size of 
Cooper’s hawk, only more muscular and massive. Its speed is un- 
believable. It can overtake and fly over swiftly flying teal ducks, 
winged bullets that they are, and calmly “stoop” and kill one or two 
and drop them into the river below, leisurely coming back to pick 
them up. Such is their fearlessness that one will occasionally pick 
up a duck, plover or grouse lying almost at the feet of a hunter and 
make off with it, before the astonished hunter fully realizes what has 
happened. They would be a scourge to the poultry man if they were 
not so rare. There are not many left and these nest in inaccessible 
cliffs where there are nct many chicken yards. And again, should 
not their matchless skill in flying, their speed and dash, be worth some- 
thing for us to look at? 
On our Western plains the prairie falcon holds forth. There 
it exacts heavy tribute from prairie chickens, sharp-tailed grouse, 
the various quail found there, but also from gophers, mice, and rats. 
Where it forages there are not many poultry yards. Thus we may 
dismiss the falcons from our consideration of chicken predators. 
Now as to the eagles, these large, stately, majestic birds should 
be strictly protected and, as far as state laws are concerned, they are. 
But in spite of that they are particular sufferers from our American 
mania for shooting and killing. Anything that is alive, especially 
when large, interesting, and beautiful, must be brought down; and 
this in spite of the fact that the bald eagle is our national bird, the 
emblem in our coat-of-arms and seal. It should be a matter of patri- 
otism to abstain from killing such a fine bird and to make others 
obey the law, but the eagles are becoming more and more rare. The 
bald eagle is fond of fish, therefore lives primarily near oceans, lakes 
and rivers. Here it will also try for wild ducks and geese, but the 
chances are that all it gets are sick and wounded ones which would 
perish anyway. 
The golden eagle lives in wild, mountainous country, mostly in 
the West. Here its main food is jackrabbits, marmots, badgers, and 
also carrion, the last-named food-item often leading to its undoing. 
The cattlemen and ranchers often poison carcasses lying on the range, 
to get rid of wolves and coyotes, and thus many of these fine birds 
come to an inglorious end. The fact that they may once in a while 
get a weak, sickly lamb should not make us declare war against such 
a noble denizen of mountain and crag, of canyon and plain. 
