Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1901-01-11
YES, BXTERMINATE HIM.

u y
on the hawk. 1t is contest fo
peace and quiet; yea, for self-preser
vation. He robs us of our substance
and endangers our souls-Assistan
Ornithologist to the U. S. Depart
ment of Agriculture, A. X. Fisher
M. d., in his essay on Riptorial Birds
to the contrary. A life and deatl
conflict should be waged against thi
enemy who infests our fowl yards
In defending the hawk, and holding
up his worth to the farmer, Doctor
Fisher founds his talk on ga littl,
learning is dangerous thing" wher
he proceeds to show that on account
on this dangerous thing there is ar
unfounded prejudice on the part Of
the farmer, who is the honey and the
honey-comb for the hawk against the
sex, species, manners, habits, and gen,
eral affiliation of the combined hawk
tribe. No doubt he is right. He al.
lows that His Raptorial Beauty is 8
great small-bird eater. But what OF
that in the good Doctors argument on
behalf of the bold and majestic bird
and for the hawks inestimable value
as a rat, mouse, snake, and all
round insect gormandizer. In fact,
the prejudiced farmer should fall
down aud adore his unknown friend,
the occasional chicken, turkey or
duck he nabs between times, in de-
fault of the more acceptable rat,
mouse, reptile or insect dinner, should
he given him as an humble meat of
feriug for the blessings he does. And
IN defending the hawk against the
charge of being a fowl thief, the
learned Doctor goes out of his way
to swipe the cat. He asserts the cat
eats-that is to say, murders-more
chickens than he is worth his weight
in the single-standard, while the
hawk eats more enemies of the farmer
than he is ever repaid for in chickens.
| am glad to say, however, this swip-
ing a natural born ratter and mouser
is but begging the question, as advo-
Gates are prone to do when argument
is weak-they shift the responsibility
on some other fellow. Yet, in his
thesis on prejudice and ignorance,
while prejudice against the hawk
may be pretty general among far
mers, the Doctors prejudice, alas,
might be found to be special, and, al
though unconscious, only against the
cat. But let the shades of this nine
lived creature rest in the keeping of
DR.. Fisher and the Egyptians, his
enemy and his idolaters.
In stating the text conversely,
"Much knowledge is a glorious
thing" two things of the glory
might be granted and nobody hurt.
Firstly, concede Doctor Fishers
knowledge is way up in the abstrac-
tive of probability when a kind-heart-
ed wish is father to the thought on
the sweet tooth of the hawk from
the time he first loomed above the
intellectual horizon as mans COM
panion, in the days of a funny-sided
chivalry and high-hown sentiment
that my lord and his lady did ahawk-
ing 60, when the misunderstood bird
could as likely swoop down on some
defenseless housewives chicken yard
and steal her years profit, to the
present moment, when he is held up
as a very god of the air who attends
to the wickedness upon the farmers
by the hosts of reptiles and insects.
Or, it may be conceded to the Doctor
he is from some bleak prairie or sand
dune of the west where his soaring
friend may espy more readily his pre-
ferred edibles of lizard, frog. gopher
and the like, and where chicken, tur-
key, ETC., is scarce. But it could be
shown that while the lizard, frog and
most snakes are of benefit to the far
mer, it is asserted in defiance of sue
cessful contradiction that one good
sized well-muscled, wide-awake, big
bellied toad, the so called sweetest
morsel of the hawk, is worth any half
dozen of your smooth-sailing, feath-
cred hypocrites or any other two
legged chicken thief as an insect
destroyer.
Secondly-For a full-blown, Deep
seated, up-to-date knowledge the
farmers hereabout have it, and some
to spare, when you come to an able.
bodied talk on the hawk and the at
tributes of his appetite. The smart
talk on the M. ID. or M. A. line of
his sighting plump, yellow-legged
chicken for a lizard, or a duck
unsuspectingly freeing herself fol-
greater succulency for frog, or a
turkey or gosling with all their pos
sibilities for chinking every crack
in the void of yearning stomach
for a Shiny snake, is a talk too ludi-
crous for him to accept with a de-
vout countenance although the dogma
may be promulgated by so high an
authority as the Agricultural De-