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BIRDS ARE THE FARMERS' MOST EFFICIENT ALLIES

While birds appeal to the regard and interest of man from the esthetic side as no other creatures do, there is another and even more important point of view, and it is no doubt true that of late years interest in birds has been greatly stimulated by the discovery that they possess an economic value. Indeed, so great is their value from a practical standpoint as to lead to the belief that were it not for birds successful agriculture would be impossible.

The study of the economic side of bird life and of the relations of birds to the farmer and horticulturist have been greatly stimulated in the United States by Federal aid and supervision, and in no other country in the world have the activities of birds been so carefully investigated with reference to their practical bearing. Under the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, for instance, is a corps of trained men, who study the food of birds by careful examination of the stomachs of specimens killed for scientific purposes. The information thus gained is supplemented by observations in the field, and the result is a large amount of invaluable data illustrative of the economic relations of many kinds of birds. This storehouse of information has been largely drawn upon in the following pages.

OUR COUNTRY IS PARTICULARLY FORTUNATE IN THE NUMBER AND VARIETY OF ITS BIRDS

It would be strange indeed if our land, with its vast extent of territory, its diversified landscape, its extensive forests, its numerous lakes and streams, with its mountains, prairies, and plains, had not been provided by Nature with an abundant and diversified bird life. As a matter of fact, America has been favored with a great variety of birds famed both for beauty and for song. America also possesses certain families, as the humming-birds and wood-warblers, the like of which exist nowhere else in the world.

In considering the many kinds of

tical side, they may not inaptly be compared to a police force, the chief duty of which is to restrain within bounds the hordes of insects that if unchecked would devour every green thing. To accomplish this task successfully, the members of the force must be variously equipped, as we find they are. Indeed, while the 1,200 kinds of birds that inhabit the United States can be grouped in families which resemble each other in a general way, yet among the members of the several families are marked variations of form and plumage and still greater variation of habits, which fit them for their diversified duties.

As the bulk of insects spend more or less time on the ground, so we find that more birds are fitted for terrestrial service than for any other. Our largest bird family, the sparrows, is chiefly terrestrial, and although its members depend much upon seeds for subsistence they spend no little share of their time searching for insects. They are ably aided in the good work by the thrushes, wrens, certain of the warblers, and many other birds.

Another group is of arboreal habits, and plays an important part in the conservation of our forests, the true value of which we have only recently learned to appreciate. So many insects burrow into trees that a highly specialized class of birds the woodpeckers has been developed to dig them out. The bills, tongues, feet, and even the tails of these birds have been cunningly adapted to this one end, and the manner in which this has been done shows how fertile Nature is in equipping her servants to do her bidding.

The bark of trees also forms a favorite shelter for numerous insects, and behold the wrens, nuthatches, warblers, and creepers, with sharpest of eyes and slenderest of bills, to detect our foes and to dislodge them from crack and cranny.

The air is full of flying insects, and to take care of these there are the swallows. swifts, and night-hawks, whose wings and bodies are so shaped as to endow them with the speed and agility necessary to follow all the turns and windings of their nimble insect prey.

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The whippoorwills, swift of wing and with capacious mouths beset with bristles, attend to the night-flying insects when most birds are asleep, while the hawks by day and the owls by night supplement the work of other birds and have a special function of their own, the destruction of noxious rodents.

Thus every family of birds plays its own part in the warfare against insects and other foes to man's industry, and contributes its share to man's welfare.

Birds would fall far short of what they accomplish for man were they not the most active of living things. It is curious that the group of vertebrates which live the fastest-that is, have a higher temperature and a more rapid circulation than any other-should be related by descent to a family of such cold-blooded creatures as the reptiles and lizards, which often go without food and hibernate for considerable periods. Very different is it with birds. Few realize the enormous quantity of food required to sustain the energy of these creatures, most of whose waking hours are spent in a never-ending search for food.

In satisfying their own hunger birds perform an important service to man, for notwithstanding the fact that the acreage under cultivation in the United States is larger than ever before, and that the crops are greater, the cost of foodstuffs continually mounts upward. Meanwhile the destruction of farm and orchard crops by insects and by rodents amounts to many millions each year, and if any part of this loss can be prevented it will be so much clear gain.

The protection of insectivorous and rodent-destroying birds is one of the most effective means of preventing much of this unnecessary loss, and the public is rapidly awakening to the importance of this form of conservation. From the farmers' standpoint, such birds as the bobwhite, prairie-chicken, the upland plover, and the other shore birds are worth very much more as insect eaters than as food or as objects of pursuit by the sportsman. This statement applies with especial force to such species as the prairie-chicken, which everywhere in its old haunts is threatened with extinction.

BIRDS CHECK RAVAGES OF DISEASE-
CARRYING INSECTS

The value of birds to the farmer is plain enough, but we do not usually think of birds as having any direct relation to the public health. To prove that they do. however, it is only necessary to state that 500 mosquitoes have been found in the stomach of a single night-hawk; that in a killdeer's stomach hundreds of the larvæ of the salt-marsh mosquito have been found, and that many shore birds greedily devour mosquito larvæ. As mosquitoes are known to carry the germs of such serious diseases as dengue fever and malaria, it is evident that by destroying them birds are conferring an important benefit on man. It may be added that not infrequently ticks are eaten by birds, and that the tick responsible for the spread of Texas fever among cattle has been found in the stomach of the bobwhite.

Since birds perform such invaluable service, every effort should be made to protect the birds we now have and to increase their numbers. This can be done in several ways: (a) by furnishing nesting boxes for certain species to nest in. as swallows, martins, wrens, woodpeckers, great-crested flycatchers, and others: (b) by planting berry-bearing shrubs about the farm or orchard as food for the birds in winter; (c) by the establishment of bird santuaries, where birds may be reasonably safe from their natural enemies and be permitted to live and breed in absolute security as far as man is concerned.

Here, again, the National Government, taking the lead, has set apart no less than 64 bird refuges in various parts of the United States. These for the most part are rocky, barren islands of little or no agricultural value, but of very great usefulness in the cause of bird protection. The example thus set is now being followed by certain States, as Oregon and Wisconsin. Several private citizens also have acquired islands for the purpose of making bird preserves of them; others not only prevent the destruction of wild life on their forested estates, but go much farther, and endeavor in various ways to increase the number of their bird tenants.

Efforts to protect birds on a smaller scale and to attract them about dwellings, with a view to their close companionship, are worthy of all praise, and such efforts should be far more common in this country than they are at present, particularly as the means involve little trouble or expense. The presence of trees and shrubbery near the house is of itself an open invitation to birds which they are eager to accept, particularly if the shrubbery is not too closely pruned. Birds like thick vines and tangles, in the recesses of which they feel safe from their many enemies. Suet, nuts, and other bird foods, if exposed in conspicuous places, can usually be depended on to attract birds in winter, and often avail to save many lives, especially when snow covers the ground. In summer opportunities to drink and bathe are irresistible attractions to birds and largely increase the number resorting to any given neighborhood.

Last but not least important may be mentioned the element of safety from Birds and cats do not thrive in the same neighborhood.

cats.

To awaken interest in the study of our bird neighbors is the chief object of this paper. The free use of colored illustrations to facilitate identification precludes the necessity for long and detailed descriptions. As all the birds illustrating the text are from the brush of the wellknown artist, Fuertes, they need no commendation, but may be permitted to sing their own praises.*

*The following birds were pictured and described in the June, 1913, number of the NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE: Bluebird, robin, russet-backed thrush, ruby - crowned kinglet, chickadee, white - breasted nuthatch, brown creeper, house wren, brown thrasher, catbird, mocking - bird, myrtle warbler, loggerhead shrike, barn - swallow, purple martin, blackheaded grosbeak, rose-breasted grosbeak, songsparrow, chipping sparrow, white-crowned sparrow, English sparrow, crow blackbird, Brewer's blackbird, Bullock's oriole, meadow-larks, redwinged blackbird, bobolink, common California jay, blue jay, horned lark, Arkansas kingbird, kingbird, nighthawk, flicker, yellowbellied sapsucker, downy woodpecker, yellowbilled cuckoo, screech-owl, barn-owl, sparrow hawk, red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, morning dove, ruffed grouse, bobwhite, killdeer, upland plover, black tern, Franklin's gull.

crow,

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KINGFISHER (Ceryle alcyon).

Length, about 13 inches. Not to be confused with any other American bird.

Range: Breeds from northwestern Alaska and central Canada south to the southern border of the United States; winters from British Columbia, Nebraska, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Virginia south to the West Indies, Colombia and Guiana.

The cry of the kingfisher, which suggests a watchman's rattle in vigorous hands, can be mistaken for the note of no other bird; nor, for that matter, is the bird himself likely to be confused with any other species. Whether flying, perched on a branch over a stream, or diving for small fish, our kingfisher is always himself, borrowing none of his peculiarities from his neighbors. Many of his tropical brothers catch insects for a living; but our bird, early in the history of the development of the kingfisher family. discovered that fish were easier to catch and in the long run more filling than insects, and hence renounced the family habit and assumed the role of fisherman. Instead of using a hollow tree as a nest site, the kingfisher has apparently learned a lesson from the sandswallows and excavates a burrow for himself in some sandbank, usually not far from pond or stream; and you may be sure that any pond chosen by him for a haunt is well stocked with fish. The fish he kills are chiefly minnows and of small value, but the bird sometimes makes a nuisance of himself about fish hatcheries, where his skill in catching young food fish often brings him speedy doom.

RED-HEAD (Melanerpes erythrocephalus). Length, about 9 inches. Our only woodpecker with red head and broad white wing patch.

Range: From southern Canada to the Gulf Coast and from central Montana, central Colorado, and central Texas to the Hudson and Delaware. Generally resident, but more or less migratory in the southern parts of its range.

This strikingly marked and readily identified woodpecker is common in some localities and ontirely wanting in others which apparently are equally well adapted to the bird's needs. Its habits are a combination of woodpecker, jay and flycatcher, and catching insects on the wing is a common habit. Though in general migratory, the bird is apparently indifferent to cold and other weather conditions, and winters wherever food abounds, especially where beechnuts, of which it is very fond, are plentiful. The red-head eats nearly twice as much vegetable food as it does animal, but the latter includes many destructive insects. For instance, it is greatly to its credit that it cats both species of clover beetles, the corn weevil, cherry scale and 17-year cicada. On the other hand, vigorous accusations are not wanting from various parts of the country of damage done by this species. It eats corn on the ear, and attacks many kinds of small fruits, including strawberries and apples. It is also guilty of robbing the nests of wild birds of both eggs and nestlings. It does some damage to telegraph poles by boring into them to make nests. No doubt some of these charges are well founded. For the most part they represent the occasional acts of individuals, or are local and not characteristic of the species as a whole.

RED-SHAFTED FLICKER (Colaptes cafer

collaris).

Length, 12 to 14 inches. To be distinguished from its eastern relative (C. auratus) by its red mustache and nuchal band and the red wing and tail shafts.

Range: Rocky mountain region from British Columbia south to Mexico, west to the coast mountains in Oregon and Washington, and through California; largely resident.

Few birds are more widely known than the flicker, as appears from the fact, recorded by Chapman, that in the various parts of the country it appears under no fewer than 124 aliases. Though well known, the flicker is more often heard than seen, its loud call often proclaiming its presence when it is hidden among the trees. As a rule the flicker is shy and in some sections of the country it has good reason to be, since it is accounted a game bird and, as such, pursued for the table.

Though a woodpecker, the red-shaft departs widely from typical members of the tribe both in structure and habits. Notwithstanding the fact that its bill is not well adapted for boring into wood for larvæ, the bird manages to do considerable damage in the west by making holes, in church steeples, school houses and other buildings, to serve as roosting quarters. As it is nowise particular as to its domicile, it is possible materially to increase its numbers by putting up nesting boxes for its accomodation. The bird's subsistence is obtained largely from the ground, where it secures vast quantities of ants, for taking which its tongue is specially adapted; about one half its food in fact consists of these creatures. The flicker also consumes grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles, but it is so much of a vegetarian that the list of berries and seeds it eats is a long one, though it is not accused of taking domestic fruit.

CALIFORNIA WOODPECKER (Melanerpes formicivorus and races).

Length, about 9 inches. Easily distinguished from its fellows by its general black color, white forehead, throat patch, belly and wing patch.

Range: Breeds from northwestern Oregon, California, Arizona, and New Mexico south through Lower California to Costa Rica.

The California woodpecker is a noisy, frolicsome bird and by all odds the most interesting of our woodpeckers. Its range seems to be determined by that of the oaks upon which it lives and from which it draws a large part of its subsistence. In California the bird is known to many by the Spanish name, carpintero, or carpenter, and its shop is the oak, in the dead limbs of which, as in the bark of pines, it bores innumerable holes, each just large enough to receive an acorn. That the birds do not regard the filling of these storehouses as work, but on the contrary take great pleasure in it, is evident from their joyous outcries and from the manner they chase each other in their trips from tree to tree like boys at tag. In California many of the country school houses are unoccupied during the summer and the woodpeckers do serious damage by drilling holes in the window casings and elsewhere with a view to using them as storage places. As long as the acorn crop lasts, so long does the storing work go on. Meanwhile the jays and squirrels slip in and rob the woodpecker's larder. Though this woodpecker eats insects, including some harmful ones, they form less than a third of its entire fare.