OCR Text |
Show Many Enemies of Field j Mice Found on Any Farm j In making plans for the permanent control of field mice, a protective sentiment sen-timent should he fostered toward such of their natural enemies as are not injurious to the interests of man, for mice form an important Item of the diet of many of our predatory birds, maninials, nnd larger snakes. Whenever there is an abnormal increase in-crease in the number of mice, their enemies usually tend to increase correspondingly cor-respondingly and thus exercise a natural nat-ural control over them. The birds which most commonly feed upon field mice are owls, hawks, shrikes, cranes, herons. Ibises, gulls, crows, magpies and road-runners. Among their mammal enemies, which are for the most part economically beneficial to the Interests of man. may be mentioned foxes, badgers, raccoons, rac-coons, opossums, skunks, mink, marten, mar-ten, weasels and shrews. heir enemies among the larger snakej include in-clude klngsnakes, bullsnakes, and hlacksnalces. |