Destruction of Hawks in the United States

Abstract

IT is remarkable that tho many ornithological associations in the United States were unable for thirteen years to prevent the Stato-encouraged slaughter of hawks in Maryland. In a short article in the Condor (1932, p. 187), Prof. A. Brazier Howell gives some indication of what the bounty payment of 50 cents for each hawk (the law was intended to apply to tho sharp-shinned and Cooper's hawks only) meant to the hawk population and to tho public purse. From a total of 7 individuals killed in 1918, the year of the passing of tho anti-hawk legislation, tho annual slaughter reached 20,081 in 1923–24, and 22,283 in 1929–30, when the bounty was repealed. In all, during the thirteen years when tho bounty was in force, 62,543 dollars were paid for 125,086 hawks. Unfortunately, the effect spread far beyond the bounds for which the Maryland legislators were responsible, for the inducement of the bounty led individuals to make a profitable business of hawk-hunting, particularly during autumn, when thousands of migrating hawks remain for short periods on passage. In the five years 1926–1930, a well-known resting ground of such migrants furnished 40,003 hawks, or 55 per cent of the total kill during that period, and a single hawk-hunter was rewarded in 1930 to tho tune of 900 dollars. It was against much opposition that Mr. E. Le Compte, the State game warden, finally succeeded in inducing the legislature to withdraw the bounty.