The Raymer enterprise., 1916-06-08

lC would profit the man with poultry
~ yard and farm to study the habits
of hawks little and to learn to discriminate be
tween the friend and the foe TO his interests.
Let Us take first the hawks ordinarily known as
hen hawks or chicken hawks. The hawks com.
monty called by these names rarely kill any chick.
ems. But the trouble is that they get the blame
for the bad deeds OF birds that sneak In" to the
poultry yard do their killing and make their
escape while the big bird soaring in plain sight
against the heavens is charged with being the
culprit and receives the present OF a charge Of
shot II opportunity offers
Take the red.tailed hawk for instance. He is
known to the scientist as Buteo borealis In the
West the soaring chicken hawk" almost nvarl-
ably is the redtal About year perhaps
the redtail will pick up chicken but for the
OF the time he contents himself with a diet OF
frogs. snakes. crawfsh. insects, and small nam
mails mostly Of an injurious habit of life. The
number Of field mice that redtailed hawk In the
course OF a month will catch and deyour is almost
Incredible
The good that this chicken hawk" does so far
outweighs the harm that It is a living shame II Is
hunted ceaseessly. II there ever was crea.
ture In the world about whom there are thou.
sand mistaken thoughts that creature is the red.
tailed hawk. the commonest OF our chicken
hawks"
Ordinarily one thinks OF birds OF prey as being
exceedingly bold. Some of them are. But the
redtail is on pretty nearly every occasion an ar.
rant coward. He is meekly submissive to the as.
saults Of the kingbird and he is perfect poltroon
In the face OF an attack from crow. | have seen
crow buffet red-tailed hawk for half an hour
the hawk making absolutely no attempt to defend
himself and apparently being afraid to leave It's
perch on a fencepost for fear that the crow would
aaY
the courageous hawks are the injurious hawks
There is another hawk similar in It's habits to
the redtail 1t is fairly common in many parts
Of the United States and particularly so east OF
the Mississippi river. 1t is called the red .shoul
dered hawk, and with the redtail 1t shares the
ignominy of being known wherever It appears as
chicken hawk. Like the redtail IL occasionally
Kills chicken. But it dearly loves rats. mice
ueegrdling rabbits, frogs. and insects The red
shouldered hawk scars and scars. and scars and
~heh IL Is seen against the sky the shotgun is
brought out and an attempt is made to kill the
friend that is looking for field mice. gophers or
something else, and with its thoughts far removed
from the chicken coop
In suburb Of Washington d. C.. a friend OF
nine mas country place where he raises large
numbers of chickens. This friend is a bird lover
and he has many species OF American birds dwell
about twenty acres of woodland and in these
woods lived two pairs Of red-shoudered hawks.
My friend asked me If he should Kill the hawks
In order to save his chickens. | told him TO leave
the hawks alone and be did so for long time
Finally on one unfortunate day one OF the red
shouldered gentlemen descended on the poutry
yard and made on with pullet. Death was de,
creed for the hawks and soon they were killed.
Within few weeks the chickens began to dis
appear or at any rate were found dead with their
iifeblood gone. and in some cases partly deyoured
The weases were at work After the hawks were
killed the weases multiplied in great. numbers
and took their heavy toll Of ROSTERS hens and
little chicks of uncertain sex My friend was sorry
that he had killed the hawks
Then there is the sparrow hawk known To the
scientist as falco sparverus. This is the smallest
of the hawks Of North America and II has a range
all over the United States. The sparrow hawk
almost unquestionably is the most beautiful as II
lis the smallest, Of our birds OF prey. This little
hawk is unfortunately named II was dubbed
sparrow hawk long before the day OF the English
sparrows in this country Ii was so called be.
cause II occasionally captured and killed some of
our native American sparrows. which for the most
part are henehcent birds, Lately the sparrow
hawk when II does any bird killing at all turns its
attention largely to English sparrows and there.
by adds 10 the services which II otherwise rem.
ders The sparrow hawk lives mostly on small
injurious mammals insects grasshoppers carer
pillars and the like. IL should be said how
that fully % per cent Of the food of the spar
row hawk consists of field mice house mice and
shrews
pair OF sparrow hawks have a nest or at any
rate a resting place, back of big bronze eagle
which spreads Its wings near the roof on the face
Of the state. war and navy building in Washing,
ton directly across narrow street from one end
OF the White House. These two sparrow hawks
hunt the White House grounds daily. II may not
be the same pair. but two sparrow hawks have
been abiding back Of the state department eagle
for a good many years.
When Theodore Roosevelt was president he
searched the grounds around the White House
every once in while tc discover what he could in
the way OF wild life. Next to birds he was partc.