The Great Value Of Hawks

Because a few species of hawk sometimes kill game birds, the entire class is condemned. There are those, and they are many, who fail to see that birds of prey fill an important part in the great scheme of Nature. Does the hunter who shoots down the hawk at every opportunity, because some species occasionally captures what he is pleased to consider his special property, ever stop to ask himself what caused the quail and other non-migratory game birds to attain those powers of swift flight which alone make them desirable as objects of sport?

It is the bird of prey, pursuing the other since the days of their creation, which has developed not only its own strength of wing, but also that of its quarry. And just as surely as this is true, so truly will that power be lost if the contributing cause be removed. The Dodo, a pigeon, found himself on the island of Mauritius where enemies were unknown. He yielded to gluttony and inaction, developed a corpulence that forbade flight, and was eaten from the face of the earth within a short time after his discovery by man. His relative, the rock dove, who had to escape the pursuing hawk or perish, developed and still retains a power of wing which is famous the world over.

In the same way several other species, notably some of the rails, by adopting a care-free life, have forfeited flight, and now face extermination whenever any active enemy invades their haunts. The very hawks, which we are now exterminating, have made our grouse and quail what they are. Close students of the subject also recognize the great value of hawks in the removal of game birds suffering from contagious diseases. A little thought should convince anyone of the fallacy of the argument that the lessening ranks of our game birds have been the result of depredation by hawks, a theory that has been the basis of most of the prejudice directed toward them. If this were wellfounded then the decimation of the predators would have resulted in an increase in game birds.

In truth both hawks and game have decreased simultaneously, and from the same primary cause. As an instance of the destruction of innocent hawks under mere suspicion, there may be cited an item just published in the report of progress of an investigation of methods for increasing quail. Upwards of thirty marsh hawks were frequenting roosting places in the game covers, and about half of these were shot. Then over a thousand of the castings of the birds were examined, each representing a meal, with the result that the remains of four quail were found, while more than nine hundred meals had included one or more cotton rats, which eat the eggs of the quail. Indeed the statement is emphasized that most of the enemies of the quail are also the destroyers of its foes.

By: davidbunch

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