Identifier: cu31924000070809 (find matches)
Title: Bird studies for home and school; sixty common birds, their habits and haunts
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: De Groat, Herman C
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: Buffalo, N. Y., Herman C. De Groat
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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oung are often hatched in March. It isa permanent resident. Twenty species of Hawks are found in the United States,several of which, including the Red-tailed, are of great size.When we have learned the habits of one kind, we shall knowmuch about all of them for their characteristics are quite sim-ilar. They belong to the birds of prey. They live upon mice and other rodents, small birds, frogs,reptiles and insects. Two varieties, the Sharp-shinned andCoopers Hawk, are quite destructive to poultry, and becauseof this the farmers are ready to kill ^ery species of Hawkfound on their farms. To them a Hawk is a Hawk and, there-fore, a chicken thief. In many homes the loaded gun hangsin the kitchen ever ready for use if a Hawk sails over the prem-ises. This treatment of Hawks is a fatal mistake, for as a classthey are of great benefit to the agriculturists. The UnitedStates Department of Agriculture estimates that every Hawkdestroys a thousand mice or their equivalent in insects annually, 32
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291 RED-TAILED HAWK.)i Life-siVe. COPYRIGHT 1BQ0, BV A. W. MUMFORD, CHICAaO and that each mouse or its equivalent would cause the farmera loss of two cents per year. This gives a value of $20 for theyearly services of every Hawk. Fortunately Hawks are nowprotected by law in many states including New York. The Red-tailed Hawk is sometimes guilty of takingpoultry. Out of 562 stomachs of this species examined by theGovernment, only 54 contained poultry or game birds while 409contained mice and other mammals. This dignified bird maybe seen in the country on a fair day, high in the sky, circlingslowly and gracefully over fields and woods, evidently enjoy-ing its lofty flight while watching sharply for some daintymorsel of food below. The power of a Hawks vision is marvelous. Our Hawkwill discover a small bird, a mouse or a frog when hundreds offeet above it. Suddenly it swoops down to the ground andseizing its prey in its talons, it flies away to some tree to devourit. The long sharp claws

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