Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1924-05-07
GOOD AND BAD HAWKS.
Don't Shoot Until You Know Which
You Are Killing.
(Alvin NJ. Peterson, in Our Dumb
Animals.)

show that many OF our hawks are
among our most useful birds. In
spite of this fact, many people seem
to be possessed with a mania for
shooting them Let hawk appear
in sight and they run for their guns
as though their lives were in dam
ger. | frequently see men sneaking
through the woods and pastures try
ing to get near hawks for shot.
Others | see sallying forth gun in
hand because a hawk has been dis
covered perched in distant tree.
There is no effort made by these
gunners to determine the kind of
hawk the bird may be or what it is
doing. Large numbers of hawks are
thus shot each year far from poultry
yards. These hawks are in fact most
of them actually doing good work
when discovered and killed. Luckily
hawks are very sharp-eyed and large
numbers of them manage to keep far
from man and his firearms.
But a short time ago | stood for
some time watching pair of large
hawks that were sailing low over an
oak forest. They sailed slowly just
above the tops of the trees, looking
this way and that as they carefully
examined the forest floor for prey.
OF one thing | was certain, these ma
jestic birds were not hunting for
poultry They were in the wrong
place for that. | frequently surprise
hawks perched in trees far from
farm-houses, where they have unob-
structed views of nearby fields,
meadows and open pastures. What
are these birds looking for? Surely
not for poultry because there are no
chickens there. They are there for
other purposes. They are in fact on
the lookout for mice and other small
mammals, which they destroy in
large numbers, thus doing some valu-
able work for the farmer.
Investigations have proved that we
have but three destructive hawks,
the Cooper, sharp-shinned and Cos
hawk These hawks are often called
blue darters because of their color
and their rapid darting fight. They
are able to catch birds ON the wing
and destroy game, song birds, and
poultry The goshaWk is the largest
of these and the most destructive,
but is rare, visiting us only occasion
ally in winter. The Cooper, on the
other hand, is not only very destruc-
tive, but is also quite common and
does the most damage. 1t is about
sixteen inches long and may be
known by its long, rounded tail. The
sharp-shinned is also destructive, but
is handicapped by its size, for it is
but a foot long. 1t may be identified
by its long, square tail.
The red-shouldered, red-tailed,
marsh and sparroW-hawks are the
most common of our useful hawks.
The rough-legged and broad-winged
are also useful, but are rarer than
the preceding species. The red
shouldered hawk is nearly twenty
inches long and is named from its
chestnut shoulders. The red-tailed
is two or three inches longer than
the red-shouldered and may be iden-
titled by its reddish-brown tail.
These hawks fly slowly, often soaring
and sailing around while looking
about for mammals, grasshoppers,
toads, snakes, and other things to
eat. The marsh hawk is about as
large as the redshouldered hawk
and may be identified by the large
patch of white on the rump. Unlike
the red-shouldered and red-tailed
hawks, which have short tails, it has
long tail and in this respect resem-
bles the blue darters. 1t differs
from the other hawks mentioned in
that it nests on the ground, the
others all resting in trees. It's man
ner of flight is also different from
that of the others. 1t scars or sails
but little, but twists and turns as it
flies slowly very near the ground
looking for its prey. The sparrow
hawk is but ten inches long and nests
in holes in trees, often finding and
making use of a flicker's hole which
is about the right size.
The stomachs of two hundred and
twenty red-shouldered hawks were
examined by DR.. Fisher for the
United States Department of Agri-
culture, and of these one hundred
and two were found to have eaten
mice, forty of them had Toasted on
other mammals, and ninety-two OF
them had eaten insects, whereas but
three of these so-called hen-hawks
had eaten poultry. The feeding
habits of the red-tailed hawk are
much the same as those of the red
shouldered, making it practically as
useful a bird. The rough-legged
hawk lives to great extent on
meadow mice and jennings, while
the marsh-hawk lives mainly on
mice and other small mammals,
frogs, and grasshoppers, but seven
out of one hundred and twenty -four
/ stomachs examined containing poul-
! try. Three hundred and twenty
/ stomachs of the sparrow-hawk were
examined by DR.. Fisher, two hundred
and fifteen of them containing insects
and eighty-nine the remains of mice
1t cannot be emphasized too
strongly that we have a number of
different species of hawk, many of
which are very useful birds; that we
| have but two common destructive
/ hawks, the Cooper and sharp