In Berkshire fields . ble collections for study, andmost eggs would do more good as birds than asneglected specimens amid the clutter of a boysden. But if the boy can be taught to distinguishthe eggs of the Cooper and sharp-shinned hawks,the more he collects the better! It will not benefithis clothes, but it will help the community and allthe beneficent birds. The sparrow-hawk (a small falcon) and the marsh-hawk (which may be distinguished unfailingly bythe white upper tail coverts) should both be allowedto live, perhaps—the former, at any rate. Theirfood for the most part consists of mice, in
In Berkshire fields . ble collections for study, andmost eggs would do more good as birds than asneglected specimens amid the clutter of a boysden. But if the boy can be taught to distinguishthe eggs of the Cooper and sharp-shinned hawks,the more he collects the better! It will not benefithis clothes, but it will help the community and allthe beneficent birds. The sparrow-hawk (a small falcon) and the marsh-hawk (which may be distinguished unfailingly bythe white upper tail coverts) should both be allowedto live, perhaps—the former, at any rate. Theirfood for the most part consists of mice, insects, andso on, although both take a certain toll of bird life,especially the marsh-hawk. At the worst, they areSouth Germans, not Prussians. The sparrow-hawkis a pretty little falcon, with considerable rosy coloron him, and is seen, perhaps, more often than almostany bird of prey by the average unobservant person,because he often sits on roadside telegraph poles orcourses over the fields. I have seen them over the. The marsh-hawk prairie close to the edge of the Rocky Mountains,and even in the heart of a city. Mr. Stone recordsthat once he had a studio in Washington near theTreasury Building and a pair of sparrow-hawkscame daily to a telephone pole close by and lay inwait for the English sparrows, which they appar-ently took to their young somewhere in a concealed go IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS courtyard. (They often nest in hollow trees.) Thiswould seem to suggest possibilities to those com-munities which are infested with sparrows. A fewpairs of sparrow-hawks on every block would soonclean things up! The marsh-hawk (which is a medium-sized bird,about seventeen inches long) has apparently thehabit of hunting over a regular beat. I have recordsof this from points as distant as New England andMexico (the latter recorded by Charles LivingstonBull). In each case the bird always appeared froma certain quarter, followed a definite line of flightwhile under observation, and disappeared a
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