Page 246 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

224 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
the farmers found their fields and orchards thoroughly overrun by- destructive rats, mice and insects, and they appealed to the legislature forthequickrepealofthelaw. Withallpossiblehastethiswasbrought about; but it was estimated by competent judges that in damages to their crops the hawk law cost the people of Pennsylvania nothing less than two million dollars.
Moral: Don't make any laws providing for the destruction of hawks and owls until you have exact knowledge, and know in advance what the results will be.
In the space at my disposal for this subject, it is impossible to treat our species of hawks and owls separately. The reader can find in the "American Natural History" fifteen pages of text, numerous illustra- tions and many figures elucidating this subject. Unfortunately Dr. Fisher's admirable work on "The Hawks and Owls" has long been out ofprint,andunobtainable. Thereare,however,afewobservationsthat must be recorded here.
Eachbirdofpreyisabalancedequation. Eachone,Ithinkwith- out a single exception, does some damage, chiefly in the destruction of valuable wild birds. The value of the poultry destroyed by hawks and owlsisverysmallincomparionwiththeirkillingofwildprey. Many ofthespeciesdonottouchdomesticpoultry! Atthesametime,whena hawk of any kind, or an owl, sets to work deliberately and persistently to clean out a farmer's poultry yard, and is actually doing it, that farmer is justified in killing that bird. But, the occasional loss of a broiler is not to be regarded as justification for a war of extermination on all the hawks that fly! Individual wild-animal nuisances can occasionally be- come so exasperating as to justify the use of the gun,—when scarecrows fail; but in all such circumstances the greatest judgment, and much for- bearance also, is desirable and necessary.
The value of hawks and owls rests upon their perpetual warfare on the millions of destructive rats, mice, moles, shrews, weasels, rabbits and English sparrows that constantly prey upon what the farmer produces. Onthispointafewillustrationsmustbegiven. Oneofthemostfamous comes via Dr. Fisher, from one of the towers of the Smithsonian build- ings, and relates to
The Barn Owl, {Strix flammea).—Two hundred pellets consisting of bones, hair and feathers from one nesting pair of these birds were collected, and found to contain 454 skulls, of which 225 were of meadow mice, 179 of house mice, 2 of pine mice, 20 were of rats, 6 of jumping mice, 20 were from shrews, 1 was of a mole and 1 a vesper sparrow. One bird, and 453 noxious mammals! Compare this with the record of any cat on earth. Anything that the barn owl wants from me, or from any farmer, should at once be offered to it, on a silver tray. This bird is often called the Monkey-Faced Owl, and it should be called the Farmer's-Friend Owl.
The Long-Eared Owl, {Asia wilsonianus) has practically the same kind of a record as the barn owl,—scores of mice, rats and shrews de-