The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1916-06-09


X ~ shot ruthlessly sight. 1t
10 would profit the man with poultry
~ yard and farm to study the habits
OF hawks a 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 chicken hawks. The hawks com
monty called by these names rarely kill any chick
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 q charge Of
shot II opportunity offers
Take the red-taed hawk for instance He is
known to the scientist as Buteo borealis. In the
West the soaring chicken hawk" almost invar
ably 10 the redtan. About once = year perhaps
the redtail will pick up q chicken, but for the rest
Of the time he contents himself with diet of
frogs, snakes. crawfsh insects, and small nam
mails, mostly of injurious habit of life The
number of Geld mice that q red tailed hawk In the
course of month will catch and devour is almost
incredible.
The good that this chicken hawk" does so far
outweghs the harm that It is a living shame 1t is
hunted 80 ceaselessly II there ever
ture in the world about whom there thou
sand mistaken thoughts that creature Is the red
tailed hawk the commonest of chicken
hawks
Ordinarily one thinks OF birds Of prey being
exceedingly bold. Some of them But the
redtail is pretty nearly every occasion an ar.
rant coward He is meekly submissive to the as
saults OF the kingbrd and he is a perfect poltroon
In the face OF an attack from a crow. have
a crow buffet red tailed hawk for half an hour.
the hawk making absolutely attempt to defend
himself and apparently being afraid to leave its
perch fencepost for fear that the crow would
get greater advantage while in fight. AS a 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
M he cd ats and Iorly
the Mississippi river. 1t is called the red Shout
hered hawk. and with the redtail it shares the
ignominy of being known wherever 1t appears as
a chicken hawk. Like the redtail 1t occasionally
kills chicken. But it dearly loves rats mice
eegirdling 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. a friend of
mine has a 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 hawk
My friend asked me II he should kill the hawks
In order to save his chickens. | told him to leave
the hawks alone and he did 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 soon they were killed
Within few weeks the chickens began to dis
appear, or, at any rate. found dead with their
LIKELIHOOD gone, and in some cases partly devoured
The weasels were at work After the hawks we're
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
aa leo lie 10 tbo,
Of the hawks of North America and it has a range
all the Unitcd States The sparrow hawk
almost unquestionab!y is the most beautiful as 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 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 1t does any bird killing at ALL turns 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 OF the food of the spar
hawk consists OF field mice. house mice and
shrews.
A pair of sparrow hawks have q nest, or at any
rate a resting place. back Of q big bronze eagle
which spreads its wings near the roof the face
of the state. war. and navy building in Washing
ton directly across a 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 a good many years
When Theodore Roosevelt was president he
searched the grounds around the White House
every in a while to discover what he could in
the way of wild life. Next birds. he was partic.
ularly interested in field mice Occasionally he L.