Identifier: birdsnature91901chic (find matches)
Title: Birds and nature
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Birds Natural history
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. : A.W. Mumford, Publisher
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
the harm they do in the de-struction of insectivorous birds and poul-try by destroying a much greater num-ber of mammals well known to be hos-tile to the farmer. Dr. Fisher obtained the following re-sults from the examination of the stom-achs of two thousand, two hundred andtwelve birds of prey. This number doesnot include any of those that feed exten-sively upon game and poultry. In threeand one-half per centum the remains ofpoultry or game birds were found; elevenper centum contained remains of otherbirds ; forty-two and one-half per centumcontained the remains of mice; in four-teen per centum other mammals werefound and twenty-seven per centum con-tained insect remains. This summaryincludes not only the Hawks but also theowls, eagles and related birds. It is evi-dent from these results that man has afriend in these birds that is of inestima-ble value to him. The use of falcons and Hawks in thechase dates far back in the history of the( )ld World. For ages it was one of the so I—
Text Appearing After Image:
FROM COL. JOSEPH STEPPAN. 185 YOUNG RED-TAILED HAWK HOLDING A QUAIL.(Buteo borealis.) AMERICAN ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK. (Archibuteo lagopus sancti-johannis) About lA Life-size. COPYRIGHT 1901, BYW. MUMFORO, CHICAGO. principal sports of mankind and espe-cially of the nobility. Hawks may betrained to a high degree of efficiency inthe capturing of other birds. It is saidthat the Chinese knew of this character-istic of the Hawks at least two thousandyears before the time of Christ. In Japanthe art of falconry was practiced about•six or seven hundred years before Christ. The art is also believed to be repre-sented in a bas-relief found in the Khor-sahad ruins in which a falconer is appar-ently bearing a hawk on his wrist. Thusthese ancient ruins of Nineveh show thatthe art must have been known at leastseventeen hundred years before Christ. That falconry was known to the an-cient races of Africa is highly probable,though there is but little in the earlierwritten history of that continent regard

Note About Images