Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-01-29
Useful Birds and Their Protection.


the proceedings of various conferences of
| learned men at Vienna, drawn together
there during the late Industrial EXPOSE
ton. Conspicuous among those reported
was that of the Congress on the vital sub
| ject of the protection and cultivation of
| forests. We give our readers to-day the
proceedings of another Congress in the
same imperial city--a Congress of the
Green lnternationals, or Land and Forest
| Culturists on the protection of useful
birds, to which we would especially call
the attention OF the planters, farmers and
| gardeners of the United States, inasmuch
as To them these are instructive proceed
lngs, particularly the address of DR..
Brehm, of Berlin
The learned Doctors suggestions and
the resolutions of the Congress on the
subject will, to great extent, apply rs
well TO the United States of America as to
| Austria and the other States of Europe.
Our people have been and are as reckless
and thoughtless as the Europeans in the
destruction of useful birds, and the gen.
eral ignorance concerning them, of which
! DR.. Brehm complains, is not limited to
the eastern side of The Atlantic. 1t is only,
we may say, Stree the Introduction of
the English sparrows into our parks that
our people have had their attention di-
rectly called to the usefulness of insect
destroying birds. But seeing is believing,
and we know, from their invaluable
services, that these sparrows to this city
are worth more than their weight in gold.
We have several varieties of handsomer
and more pleasantly musical native spar
rows than these Anglo -Saxons; but as
they build their nests in the bushes, or
among the leafy branches of low trees, or
under a sheltering shrub or brier on the
ground, they are not adapted to city life.
They should, however, be protected in
the country, for they, too, are industrious
worm -destroyers. So are the hooking
bird, the thrush, the catbird, and the
robin robin Goodtellow) and they are
fine singers, all of them--the living poet
ry of the woods and fields. And 80 is the
soft warbling blue bird, herald of the
spring And so is the Baltimore oriole,
in his brilliant orange and black court
costume; musician, too, whose spark
ling, silvery voice carries with it the
inspiration of a bright May morning.
Nor must we omit from this legion of
honor little Jenny Wren and her loving
spouse, who, in and around the coy box
or gourd under the caves of the farmer
kitchen, with their merry chorus and
their Industrious labors for their numer-
Gus family, are happy as the day is long.
And n valuable servant is that ncyer-tiring
little hero in his suit of silver gray, the
king Bird ever ready to maintain against
all corners his right to the locust tree, in
herited from his fathers He and his
mate build among the Hottest branches,
for they can hold their summer cottage
against even the hawk or the eagle. The
king bird disdains to feed upon the
ground, but, like the swiit-winged swal
low, he gathers from the air the supplies
for himself and his royal family. He
| should be esteemed an ornament to every
country home, and yet the farmer too of
ten connives at his destruction, upon the
timsy preteXt that he is a bee eater. Our
swallows including the sociable, purple
house marten, the chimney swallow, the
barn swallow, and the little fellows who,
in the side Of river bluff, as in so many
rat holes, establish their colonies, are
among our useful birds, as destroyers Of
noXious flies and mosquitoes.
! Among the grub eaters, notwithstand-
| ing their bad name as pullers of the
| sprouting corn, the crow and the black
bird render services TO the farmer which
have never been properly recognized.
determination is the general order against
them, when, perhaps, there is hardly
farmer in the country who has not seen
crows and blackbirds following in the
wake Of the pillow to feast upon the worms
and grubs turned out with the soil. A
similar stupid prejudice prevails against
many useful birds as fruit eaters, and
among those Outlawed is the woodpecker,
in all his varieties, but particularly the
golden winged and the red headed wood
pecker. The chief Subsistence Of these
fellows is the toothscme grub which they
extract by chiseling often from the very
heart of the trunks Of our forest ana or
chard trees; but as in the cherry season a
single woodpecker, il the way Of dessert,
may consume a penny's worth of cher
ries, he is under the ban. To remove all
these senseless prejudices against our use
full birds, we agree with Dr. Brehm that
proper instructions concerning them must
be carried into our common schools, and
so we commend the idea to all Our Boards
Of Education.
But we have not yet exhausted even the
classes of our useful birds. Our night
birds-ior example, of the owl family
are great consumers Of rats mice, and
other vermin, although from the general
onslaught made upon the fayorite Of Mi
nerva by other birds, when he is caught
abroad in tne daylight it is evident they
have their unsettled accounts against him.
But the whippoorwill and the nighthawk
are perfectly harmless, while in their dc.
structon OF nocturnal moths and other
insects, they are, if he is lucky enough to
get them, as valuable to farmer as a col
ony of toads in his garden; for if the
whippo arwill appears TO be attracted TO
the squatter's CABIN after nightiall, it is
because the cabins lights attract the noe
turnal insects which attract the bird in