Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1916-06-09

y
10 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 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 charge Of
shot IL opportunity offers.
Take the red-tailed hawk for instance. He is
known to the scientist Buteo borealis In the
West the soaring chicken hawk" almost nvari-
ably is the redtai About once year perhaps
the redtail will pick up chicken, but for the rest
of the time he contents himself with a diet Of
frogs, snakes, crawfsh. insects, and small NAM
mails. mostly of injurious habit of life. The
number of field mice that red-taied hawk in the
course of month will catch and devour is almost
incredible
The good that this chicken hawk" does far
outweghs the harm that it is living shame 1t Is
hunted ceaseessly. If there crea-
ture in the world about whom there thou
sand mistaken thoughts that creature is the red
tailed hawk, the commonest of our Chicken
hawks"
Ordinarily one thinks of birds of prey being
exceedingly bold Some of them are. But the
redtail is on pretty nearly every occasion ar
rant coward. He is meekly submissive to the as
saults of the kngbird, and he is perfect poltroon
In the face of an attack from crow. / have seen
buffet red-taied hawk for half an hour
the hawk making absolutely no attempt to defend
himself and apparently being afraid to leave its
perch on fencepost for fear that the crow would
get greater advantage while in flight AS rule
the courageous hawks the Injurious hawks
| There is another hawk similar in its 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 redta 1t shares the
| ignominy of being known wherever it appears as
a chicken hawk. Like the redtail 1t occasionally
kills chicken. But 1t dearly loves rats, mice,
tree-girdlng rabbits, frogs, and insects The red
shouldered hawk soars and scars, and scars and
when 1t 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., friend of
mine has country place where he raises large
numbers of chickens. This friend is a bird lover
and he has many species Of American birds dwell
| ing at his doorstep. Back of his house he has
about twenty acres of woodland, and In these
woods lived two pairs of red-shouldered hawks.
| My friend asked me IL he should kill the hawks
In order to his chickens. told him to leave
the hawks alone and he did so for long time
Finally on one unfortunate day one of the red
| shouldered gentlemen descended the poultry
| yard and made off with pullet. Death was de-
creed for the hawks and they were killed
Within few weeks the chickens began to dis
appear or at any rate, were found dead with their
likelihood gone, and in cases partly devoured
| The weasels were at work. After the hawks were
killed the weasels multiplied in great numbers
and took their heavy toll of ROSTERS hens and
| of sex NV
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 1t has a range
all over the United States. The sparrow hawk
almost unquestionably is the most beautiful as it
| is the smallest, of birds of prey. This little
hawk is unfortunately named. 1t was dubbed
sparrow hawk long before the day of the English
| sparrows in this country 1t so called be-
cause 1t occasionally captured and killed some of
our native American sparrows which, for the most
! part, are benefcent birds. Lately the sparrow
hawk when it does any bird killing at ALL its
attention largely to English sparrows and there
| by adds to the services which 1t otherwise rem
! ders. The sparrow hawk lives mostly on small
| injurious mammals insects, grasshoppers cater
pillars. and the like. 1t should be said how
ever that fully rs per cent of the food of the spar
row hawk consists of field mice, house mice and
/ shrews.
| pair of sparrow hawks have nest or at any
rate 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 1t may not
be the same pair, but two sparrow hawks have
been abiding back OF the state department eagle
| for q good many years.
| When Theodore Roosevelt was president he
searched the grounds around the White House
every once In while to discover what he could In
the way OF wild nfe Next to BIRDS he was partic-
ularly interested In field MICE Occasionally he L.