HAWKS AND LAMBS

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24076, 12 October 1943, Page 4

HAWKS AND LAMBS

MR E. F. STEAD’S OPINION Disagreement with the suggestion made in an article on the farming page of “The Press’’ on Saturday that hawks preyed on lambs was expressed yesterday by Mr E. F. Stead, -of Christchurch. Mr Stead said he held no brief for the hawk, but if the dead lambs mentioned in the article had dents in the skull, the dents had certainly not been made by a hawk, because of the shape of the bird's beak. Mr Stead said the New Zealand hawks were not pecking birds but tearing birds. They killed with their feet and. if they killed lambs, talon marks would be found on the lambs’ heads. They used their beaks to tear out mouthfuls of flesh. Whatever made the dents in the lambs’ skulls referred to by Mr J. Retallick. Amberley, it was not a hawk. It was not clear from the article whether a hawk had actually been seen to attack a healthy lamb. It was not actually impossible, but it was unlikely. A hawk would tear a dead lamb and might kill a moribund one. It‘would be very rare for a hawk to attack a healthy lamb, fortunately for sheepowners. because hawks were very common in New Zealand. i He added that it was mot correct : that hawks were imported. They were ! natives of New Zealand, although ' there was an allied hawk in Australia.