File:Wild life conservation in theory and practice; lectures delivered before the Forest School of Yale University, 1914 (1914) (14741686606).jpg

Identifier: wildlifeconserva00horn (find matches)
Title: Wild life conservation in theory and practice; lectures delivered before the Forest School of Yale University, 1914
Year: 1914 (1910s)
Authors: Hornaday, William T. (William Temple), 1854-1937 Walcott, Frederic Collin, 1869-1949
Subjects: Game protection
Publisher: New Haven, Yale University Press (etc., etc.)
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
nning. To-day it is only the benightedstates of America that fail to protect the hawksand owls,—all save a very few species that will beconsidered, on a later occasion, as pests. The valuable services rendered by the usefulhawks and owls consist in the destruction of rats,mice, gophers, shrews and moles. Those small andelusive mammals must be kept in check by theirnatural enemies, especially the nocturnal birds ofprey and the small carnivorous mammals. By way of illustration, take the record of afamous pair of Barn Owls that once nested in oneof the towers of the Smithsonian building at Wash-ington. Conditions were such that the pellets ofindigestible animal matter disgorged by those twobirds were accidentally preserved for an entire year,and thereby yielded a valuable record. Two hun-dred pellets were collected, consisting of bones, hairand feathers, and it was found that they contained453 skulls which represented the following mam-mals : 225 meadow mice, 179 house mice, 20 rats, 2
Text Appearing After Image:
00 ffi Ci o — X - ^ cii j^ u S^ H § z ^^ olid 3 u >^ ClH •M e8 ^ C < e ^ o e c8 C ;i: Z ■XJ H c S oj > g XJ TS tf ^ a T7- H ^ X 03 o T3 o »: < 3 in g z ^ < 1^ o O S 4-1 o PS ^ < :« h (^ D^ O ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR BIRDS 81 pine mice, 20 shrews, 6 jumping mice and 1 mole.The collection contained the skull of one bird only,a vesper sparrow. The Long-Eared Owl has a record for rats andmice very similar to that of the barn owl; scores ofmice, rats and shrews destroyed, but alas! too manybirds, also! Its nearest relative, the Short-EaredOwl, is a bird of precisely similar habits. Formerly the Red-Shouldered and Red-TailedHawks were universally known as chickenhawks, hated accordingly by the farmer and shotwhenever possible. Now it is known that thosehawks rarely feed on domestic poultry, and thatthey devour so many wild mice and rats that theyare decidedly beneficial to man and worthy ofprotection. In 1885, the rural feeling against hawks ando

Note About Images