The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1873-04-10
FARMERS COLUMN
ORNITHOLOGY.
BY MRS. v. r. HATHAWAY, OF DAMASCUS
ILL.,, BEFORE NORTHERN ILLINOIS
HORTHULTURAL SOCIETY.

We are debtors to the bird even in
winter. The Blsckcapped Titmouse,
Blue Jay, and several woodpeckers, are
busy searching for the eggs md larvae of
insects, and the sparrows are eatlng up
the seeds. With each returning spring
come the flights OF migratory workers.
The plowec fields are flushed with the
breasts of the robins, and shining with
the brown backs and scarlet crested
wings of the blackbirds. Every plant
eating insect. in the form of eggs, larva,
chrysalis or perfect insect, destroyed in
spring, saves the crop, which it is liable
to attack, whether grain or fruit, from
the ravages of hundreds AMI perhaps
thousands of destroyers later in the sea-
son.
Go out, if you will. and watch them
awhile each day. rtalny nothing
could be more advantageous to the repu
tation OF the birds, and nothing more
likely to bring large money returns to
mankind in tie end. For, if you look
at The matter thoroughly. you must be-
come convinced that birds are Hsndispens
able to successful agriculture or horticul-
ture.
DR.. jerks, of Massachusetts,, demon
strated oy actual dissection, to ascertain
the contents of the crop, that the food
of the robin during March, April, May
and part of June. consists entirely of in
sects and their larvee-mostiy of very
destructive species. During the latter
part Of June and the months of July,
August and September, there is mixed
diet of fruits aud insects, the insects be.
ing in large preponderance. After
July, the fruit is almost entirely wild,
and even in June and July, the bird does
not go to distance to obtain the tame
fruits. Late in the season their food is
grasshoppers and similar insects. Dr.
Brewer noted pair of robins which
fed their young until They left the nest
entirely on cut worms The same fact
has been observed by other eminent
authorities. The domestic pigeon feeds
its young very largely on canker worms,
and no doubt the turtle dove and wild
pigeon, have been doing US the same
great service, and have been blindly
considered by most people as only good
food for shot. The bluebird eats all
kinds of insects, and has a preference
for some of the most destructive kinds,
as the cooling moth and its larvs, scanker
worms aud caterpillars. In the crop of
an Orio'e were found three hundred
grain weevlls.
Last June observed the rose breasted
Grosbeak engaged in destroying potato
bugs. Swimming lightly over the plants
he caught the insect, then alighted on
! ground to finish It, Several gentlemen
of my acquaintance, whose farms are
frcqaented by this bird, have noted ttha:
he is diligent in the work of destroying
this insect.
A pair sof Golden Orioles, which /
watched year ago last summer. visited
their nest with insect food twenty times
an hour, and they worked from the
earliest morning light until almost dark
in the evening.
The robin visits his nest about as of
ten, and generally with beak full oF
insects. A pair of king birds came over
twenty times an hour, and usually with
several insects at time
The woodp2ckers visit their nests
much oftener; indeed, there seems to be
II continuous stream of provisions pas
sing in at the door of the dark nest in
the trees.
This direct testimony is Lot the only
evidence in favor Of the birds. In Eu-
rope, where the whole subject has been
more deeply studied than here, it has
been observed that in Certain districts
where there was {. marked decrease In
the number of birds, there was marked
and dangerous increase of DESTRUCTIVE in
sects. Vast sums of money have been
expended to arrest, by Manipulating the
insects, the work of destruction in valua.
biz forests, but without avail And it is
well known that a reasonable number of
certain birds, native to the country.