Chief of University Police Promises Safety for Hawk

Falco peregrinus anatum, a duck hawk or maybe two duck hawks, will be as inviolable as last year's owl, Chief Alvin R. Randall of the University Police promised last night.

"I don't know a thing we can do about him," Randall said. "We thought of all sorts of ways to get rid of the owl quietly last year, but the University wouldn't hear of any of them."

Nor was the Chief worried about possible decimation of the College's pigeon population. "They're multiplying so damn fast they're becoming a nuisance," he said.

Tampering with the feeding habits of birds is against God's law, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals claimed in the owl case last year. But Cambridge police said last night the University could do anything it pleased with the hawk or hawks.

No Fear

Ludlow Griscom, Research Ornithologist, agreed with Randall that the Yard pigeons had little or nothing to fear-as a general group, that is. There are less than 50 duck hawks between Labrador and Massachusetts, Griscom said, and as for pigeons, "why they multiply almost to the fourth power."

The ornithologist doubted that the hawk or hawks were solely responsible for the 75 pigeon carcasses found in the Memorial Hall tower Friday by James Babcock, sub-foreman of the Maintenance Department. Duck hawks are only half as meaty as pigeons, he says, and would hardly eat more than one third of the pigeon a day.

225 Lunches

The 75 endeavors would thus mean 225 daily meals-but hawks are only around Cambridge between November and late March, Griscom explained. It is unlikely that they would pick Mem Hall as a place to nest, he added.

"Squirrels will be safe, because duck hawks won't touch anything other than birds in fight unless desperately hungry."

While the University granted the hawks a reprieve, freshman politicians campaigning for the Jubilee Committee were considering whether their respective party lines would ask life or death for the flying raider.