Evening star., 1947-11-14
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH
BETHESDA, Md.

Dear Sir:
Recently large hawk flew over my yard,
and some of my neighbors wanted me to
shoot it, but recalling your often-repeated
edict that there Is too much shooting in the
world as it is 7 refused to do So
Il wonder if you could tell us something
about the good hawks, and the bad hawks,
and the difference between them.
Il have been living around here for many
years. 1 have seen many hawks sail over, but
have seen little damage to bird life they have
done. Yet many persons seem to go into a
sort of frenzy when they see one of these birds
Until I hear from you, will withhold nv
f1re Yours truly, E. j. Mem"
Il "
Ornlthologists name four classes of hawks
in relation to their depredations
Hawks are thus classed as l. wholly beneficial;
2, chiefly beneficial; 3, balanced, and 4, harmful
Practically all the hawks come in the first
three classes
This leaves but five in the harmful class
the gyrfalcons, the duck hawk, the sharp
Skinned hawk, Coopers hawk and the gos-
hawk.
Until person investigates enough to be
able to distinguish these he should hold his
fire.
To the wholly beneficial class belong the
rough-legged hawk, the squirrel hawk and
the kites. These need not bother us around
here.
To the group called chiefly beneficial belong
most of our well-known hawks-marsh hawk,
Harris hawk, red-tailed hawk, red-shouldered
hawk, silort-tailed hawk, Sennett's hawk,
SWainsons hawk, sflort-winged hawk, broad
winged hawk, sparrow hawk and a few not
seen in this vicinity.
The class in which harmful and beneficial
qualities are believed by experts to balance in
clude the pigeon hawk Richardson's hawk,
prairie falcon and such birds Of prey as the
golden and bald eagles and the great horned
owl.
DR.. A. K. Fisher spent three years studying
the habits of these birds, and said of their
food habits:
"The young grow slowly, and need relatively
large amount of food.
ITO satisfy their hunger requires constant
foraging on the part of the parents, and the
strain of rearing the family is probably twice
that Of any other land BIRDS
This, from the greatest expert on these birds,
ought to cause any right-thinking person to
stay his hand.
It is easy enough to reach for a gun and
kill one of these BIRDS but 1t takes intelligence
to know the difference between them.
One should think of the burden on these
birdss instead of wanting to kill them.
DR.. Fisher continues: Even the adults are
large eaters, gorging to the utmost when the op-
portunity presents, and as digestion is very
rapid and assimilation is perfect, great guam
tity of food is relation to the body weight Is
consumed every day.
Hawks and owls often swallow their smaller
victims entire, and tear the larger ones into
several pieces, swallowing each fragment as it
is detached.
after the nutritious portion of the food has
been absorbed, the indigestible parts, such as
the feathers, scales, bones and other hard
parts, are rolled into a solid ball by the action
of the muscles Of the stomach.
These masses, known as pellets, are regur-
gitated before fresh food is taken. The pellets
contain everything necessary to identify the
food"
The picture of the scientist, laboriously going
over these pellets, is not one to appeal to the
plain average person, who only wants to know
the birds for their life, beauty, interest, etc
But the work must be interesting for the man
whose mind is suited to it, and some one
must do it, if the world is to have as much
knowledge as it needs.
The plain man on the ground, although he
may want to minutely examine the refuse from
hawks meal. at leastmay refrain from killing
these wonderful creatures, for wonderful they
are, from every standpoint. In world in
which mankind has excelled in slaughter, nc
one is very fair who points with too much
stress to the work Of the hawks. They, after
all, are hungry, when they kill, and that is a
much better excuse than man has.