Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1921-03-17
HAWkS AND OWLS.

IL is strange Yet nevertheless a fact
that children are taught from youth TO
oeieve that the owl and the hawk are
hTe enem IS Of mankind and therefore
must be killed whenever the oprcr,u.
MY presents. That all hawks ara owls
are destructive is 4 ruinouS theory for
such Is CT a'nly not the case. hut that
some hawks and some owls arc de-
s'rrctive, even 70 4 degree. is very rue.
. remains to re learned which are the
.7lHaelc ones; and to discover this
demands . system of study Il has
en- ~. common belief that the more
hawks ara ow's Killed the safer people
Fouli hc ~ it IS strange how far the
matter ''s been carried to find out
One w0-'' think that this conviction
'f reserves - 'nt.vi iuals. but in the
f'a'e Of PENNSYLVANIA the state leeis-
la'ure a one lime enacted law out.
'aW'nc all the hawks and owls in the
state, granting bounty of fifty cents
head for all brought in The slaugh-
ter went on arace and in two years
nearly 2OOO0O scales were harvested
and nearly SlOO.OOO was paid out in
NnuntieS. No doubt men made hus-
mess of this killing. The stage WIS
soon 70 he set for the rise of the curtain
m Pennsylvania. People were now 10
ne gwen a concrete example of the
law of balance and proportion. that YOU
cannot tamper with natures means OF
counteractinG a menace without painful
results.
The curtain rose AT the close of
two Years The farmers discovered that
the fields. groves and farms were in
rested nv swarms of mice. rats and in
sectS. Never had such a scoursc come
uNcn them. The most beneficial owl
OF all Chat lives almos; wholly around
the barns and kills more barn rats than
anv other living creature, the barn
ow)had also been killed off and the
rats under the barns increased one
hundred per cent making it necessary
mr. men TO 90 from farm 10 farm with
ferrets to drive out the rats and kill
them in this manner In the fields the
propagation of mice went on rapidlv.
NO hawk by day coursed low TO seize
them: no owl by night swcopcd down
out OF the nowhere to make pellets of
them.
Inc truth had been driven home 10
me people. In frantic haste plea after
plea went up TO the lawmakers and
finally the law was repealed. The great
harm had been done and il took wears
protection of these two species to bring
things back to normal. In speakinp
OF the "fool hawk and owl of Pennsv-
lvania" (now standard ioke) nat
uralist has stated with genuine wisdom:
The moral of this episode is that il
is very dangerous no NEEDLE with the
balance of nature by wholesale de-
struction of hawks and owls. There
are very few species that deserve 10
be destroyed, but those are now so diff
ficult TO find and identify at punshot
distance that only an intelligent hunter
Is competent to undertake their de-
struction and guarantee no killings BY
mistake. Today the really destructive
are almost a negligible factor in wild
life economy and only bird men should
be encouraged to 60 hunting for the ob
lectionable hawks and owls. There
IS no longer any real necessity to pro-
vide bounties for the destruction OF the
few and now rare species Of hawks that
do more harm than good and that de-
struction when they are numerous"
Telling hawks and owls, one variety
from another, IS really difficult for the
simple reason that they arc nard TO
approach, and this is true with the
bird student As well as the average per-
son. General'y the hawks killed are
not the harmful hawks and in this
manner valuable ones arc DESTROYED
while the destructive ones get away.
skin, feathers, beak and all A hawk
is hawk to the average person.
Hawks that rarely touch poultry are
always to be found around the mead
ows and the pastures swooping low
mere and there not frightened. prob
ably because they have nothing to
trouble their various consciences. II
is thus that the farmer boy often kills
the valuable ones because they are easy
TO get at
BY misapplication OF names the
red-shoudered hawk is indiscriminate
ly designated as a "hen-hawk" while
the red-tailed hawk is called "chick-
en-hawk" and vice versa. Hence thew