The Hawk

Southland Times, Issue 14100, 13 July 1898, Page 4

The Hawk

TC THE EDITOR. Sir, —I whs sorry I attributed the “hawk'’ kt’cr to the wrong writer, but I never noticed the difference in the signatures. I intended to have done with this question in my last letter, but Mr B. asks one or two such simple questions that I feel bound to reply. He asks, “ When al! the hawlja are destroyed, where are we to get our dead ones to hang on the poles 1 ” Surely he should know this is an age of imitations; sit he has to do is to get. a turnip or large potato and stick a few large feathers in each side, to represent the wings a °d a few in the end for the tail; this is quite as effective as the dead hawk. He says, “ A live friend is worth a g od many dead ones, and a live dog is better than a dead lion. ’ I'his does not always ho'd good, a dead labbit is worth more to me than a live one, and about the best friend we have in this world is dead matter, carried in our pockets ; and if the live d'g was as big a worrying nvisnnee as tie hawk, 1 should prefer the dead lion at any 7 time —he would do me no harm if he did me no good. He then says : “ Your correrponc’ent admits that the hawk can kill young game birds, but what about the young small birds and rabbits ” ’ There is eimply no comparison ; game birds make their nests on the ground and the young ones 1- ave the nests when about two days old, and follow the mother about in search of food, and being unable to fly, for a long time they are at the mercy of hawks and cats. Ou the other hand, small birds make their nests in trees or hedges, where they are safe from the hawk, and the young ones never leave the nest till they are able to fly, wh°n they are more than a match for the New Zealand hawk, who coeli not kill two small birds in a twelvemonth unless they wera injured. I have no ill-feeling against the hawk for eating your.g rabbits, he is honestly welcome io all, young and old, that he catches by his owu efforts ; what I have against him is loafing on the trapper. He knows a line of traps laid out ready for setting, and will hover around while you are Betting them, and every rabbit that is caught before dark hs will destroy for you, I have kept an account, against him for this last few weeks and I find that on the average he robs me of eightteenpence a day. Mr B. says he “ has seen a hawk attack a full-sized-live rabbit.” I have seen him do more than that, I have seen him attack a full-sized live sheep and take its eyes out before I could scarce him ; and I saw an account in the Weekly Times a little while back, where three hawks attacked a Maori women up north. If they will attack a human being or a full grown sheep, I don’t think a lamb need be halfdead for them to finish it, in fact I saw forty or fifty dead lambs last season in one paddock and they had nearly all been killed by hawks and gulls ; you could tell by the blood that had run from the eyes to the ground. Yet it seems these are the farmers’ friends, at least one farmer says so, but I don’t see any of the others endorse it.—l am, etc., Edward Matthews Dipton, 11th July.