Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1874-03-05
INSECT-EATING BIRDS,
The Farmers Best Friends.

The Farmers Best Friends.
The practical utility of our native
birds, as agents for the destruction OF
nOXious insects, can hardly be Over-es-
timated. By studying the habits OF
birds and insects, we may easily dis
cover the Important part which each
plays in the economy of nature; and
history itself proves that any material
interference with their relations to
each other is sure TO be followed by
disastrous results. Hence the subject
becomes of deepest importance, not
alone to the agriculturist, but to every
one who has either business or pa
triOtic interest in our country. Ma
ture, If left to herself, establishes a
wholesome balance amongst her crea-
lures; that is, she produces no more of
one species than shall be hept in check
by another. If there is an insect which
feeds upon a certain plant, there is al
so bird which destroys the insect, and
an animal which devours the bird; and
so on up the scale, each curbing the un-
due Increase Of the next inferior crea-
ture.
RELATIVE FERTILITY OF BIRDS AND
INSECTS.
The majority of our native birds
have but one brood of young in the
year; few have two or three. In the
case OF the smaller insect-eating birds,
the number of eggs to Il brood is, on an
average, not more than five. Some of
the larger birds, as the various CALI
n;c, lay from five or six TO twenty eggs
to a brood. On the other hand, the
rpnr1HnafIUn N Df 10 tytpIxy
marvellous. 1t is said that single
pair OF grain weevlls have produced six
thousand young between April and
August. The common varieties of
aphldes or plant-iice, which are found
Spring from eggs laid the Summer be-
fore; and through the Summer only fe-
males are developed. At the last of
the season, males and females both ap-
pear; and eggs are laid fer the brood
WHICH matches early in the Spllng.
Reaumer says that one individual in
one season may become the prOgenitOr
of six thousand millions. The s TX
Worm moth produces about live hum
dred eggs: the great soat-moth about
one thousand; the tiger-inoth one thou
sand six hundred; the female Wasp at
least thirty thousand. There is /, spe-
cies of white ants. one of which demos
its not less than sixty eggs a minute,
giving three thousand six hundred an
hour. How. then. shall this enormous
mass of insects be kept in check?
What shall prevent tneln from over
running the country. DESTROYING the
crops. and deva tating the land?
rooD pop pTpns
80 : o-' -'
various causes operate 10 cneck tne
undue increase OF insects; ana tne chiel
@i lhese Is thG appetlte ana lns.lncG
WAieA s q wise froVidenee mas gwen 70
plfqs. y the nuiiper Oh eggs produced
Dy ilsects L Solluefiul, ,he hunior ue-
sIfoyed oy sta2is Dird is no less SO.
Auduooh says Il WooQcock VIII ear us
Own Weight ol insects IL sinsle hlshl.
NJ, Pfa9iey says that a Paas ~ spar
rows WIZ Qestroy lhree thousahQ tafee
hHtldreu as4 siAty essefphadis !!
week. we saw tne parent piru V1sl.
yonng purple inartih ca church spite
opposlte our WINDOW nVe 'u!nes ga AZ
many mIhutes, each time WIN an M
sect. "A oroou OF partrIoges WIZ nearIy
: eAIeilerinlllaIe ~, .ile uehiNeus vi an AM