Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1916-06-09

yard and a 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 charge of
shot If 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 invari
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 mann
mails, mostly of injurious habit Of lfe The
number of field mice that redtailed hawk in the
course of month will catch and devour is almost
Incredible
The good that this chicken hawk" does SO far
outweighs the harm that it is living shame it is
hunted ceaseessly. If there ever was 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 as being
exceedingly bold Some of them are. But the
redtail is on pretty nearly every occasion
rant coward. He is meekly submissive to the
saults of the kngbird, and hs is perfect poltroon
in the face of an attack from crow / have
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 fencepost for fear that the crow would
get greater advantage while in flight. AS rule
the courageous hawks are the injurious hawks.
There is another hawk similar in its habits to
the redtafl. It is fairly common in many parts
of the United States and particularly east Of
To- Had .o,-1
dered hawk and with the redtail it shares the
ignomny of being known wherever it appears as
a chicken hawk Like the redtail it occasionally
kills chicken. But it dearly loves rats, mice,
tree-girdling rabbits, frogs and insects. The red
shouldered hawk scars, and scars, and scars, and
when it is seen against the sky the shotgun is
brought out and 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 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 if he should kill the hawks
in order to save 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
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, we're found dead with their
lfeblood gone and in some cases partly devoured.
The weases were at work. After the hawks were
killed the weasels 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 sparverius This is the smallest
of the hawks of North America, and it has range
all over the United States The sparrow hawk
almost unquestionaby is the most beautiful it
is the smallest, of our 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 was so called be-
cause it 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 turns it's
attention largely to English sparrows, and there.
by adds to the services which it 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.
, A pair of sparrow hawks have 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 a narrow street from end
of the White House. These two sparrow hawks
hunt the White House grounds daily. It may not
be the same pair, but two sparrow hawks have
been abiding back of the state department eagle
for good many years.
When Theodore Roosevelt was president he
searched the grounds around the White House
every once in a while to discover what he could in
the way of wild life. Next to birds, he was partc-
ulary interested in field mice. Occasionally he Ia