Birds and all Nature, Vol. IV, No 3, September 1898

<h2><SPAN name="USEFUL_BIRDS_OF_PREY" id="USEFUL_BIRDS_OF_PREY"></SPAN> USEFUL BIRDS OF PREY.</h2> <div> <ANTIMG class="drop-cap" src="images/initial_i.jpg" width-obs="59" height-obs="125" alt="" /></div> <p class="drop-cap">IT is claimed that two hundred millions of dollars that should go to the farmer, the gardner, and the fruit grower in the United States are lost every year by the ravages of insects&mdash;that is to say, one-tenth of our agricultural product is actually destroyed by them. The Department of Agriculture has made a thorough investigation of this subject, and its conclusions are about as stated. The ravages of the Gypsy Moth in three counties in Massachusetts for several years annually cost the state $100,000. "Now, as rain is the natural check to drought, so birds are the natural check to insects, for what are pests to the farmer are necessities of life to the bird. It is calculated that an average insectivorous bird destroys 2,400 insects in a year; and when it is remembered that there are over 100,000 kinds of insects in the United States, the majority of which are injurious, and that in some cases a single individual in a year may become the progenitor of several billion descendants, it is seen how much good birds do ordinarily by simple prevention." All of which has reference chiefly to the indispensableness of preventing by every possible means the destruction of the birds whose food largely consists of insects.</p> <p>But many of our so-called birds of prey, which have been thought to be the enemies of the agriculturist and have hence been ruthlessly destroyed, are equally beneficial. Dr. Fisher, an authority on the subject, in referring to the injustice which has been done to many of the best friends of the farm and garden, says:</p> <p>"The birds of prey, the majority of which labor night and day to destroy the enemies of the husbandman, are persecuted unceasingly. This has especially been the case with the Hawk family, only three of the common inland species being harmful. These are the Goshawk, Cooper's Hawk, and the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the first of which is rare in the United States, except in winter. Cooper's Hawk, or the Chicken Hawk, is the most destructive, especially to Doves. The other Hawks are of great value, one of which, the Marsh Hawk, being regarded as perhaps more useful than any other. It can be easily distinguished by its white rump and its habit of beating low over the meadows. Meadow Mice, Rabbits, and Squirrels are its favorite food. The Red-tailed Hawk, or Hen Hawk, is another." It does not deserve the name, for according to Dr. Fisher, while fully sixty-six per cent of its food consists of injurious mammals, not more than seven per cent consists of poultry, and that it is probable that a large proportion of the poultry and game captured by it and the other Buzzard Hawks is made up of old, diseased, or otherwise disabled fowls, so preventing their interbreeding with the sound stock and hindering the spread of fatal epidemics. It eats Ground Squirrels, Rabbits, Mice, and Rats.</p> <p>The Red-shouldered Hawk, whose picture we present to our readers, is as useful as it is beautiful, in fact ninety per cent of its food is composed of injurious mammals and insects.</p> <p>The Sparrow Hawk (See <span class="sc">Birds</span>, vol. 3, p. 107) is another useful member of this family. In the warm months Grasshoppers, Crickets, and other insects compose its food, and Mice during the rest of the year.</p> <p>Swainson's Hawk is said to be the great Grasshopper destroyer of the west, and it is estimated that in a month three hundred of these birds save sixty tons of produce that the Grasshopper would destroy.</p> <hr class="chap" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</SPAN></span></p> <table class="sp2 mc w50" title="THE RACCOON." summary="THE RACCOON."> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="3"><span class="ac w100 figcenter"> <SPAN name="i_016.jpg" id="i_016.jpg"> <ANTIMG style="width:100%" src="images/i_016.jpg" width="600" height="456" alt="" /></SPAN></span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.</td> <td class="x-smaller ac w40">RACCOON.<br/> &#8533; Life-size.</td> <td class="xx-smaller ac w30">Copyright by<br/> Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.</td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</SPAN></span></p> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />