The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-02
Useful Birds-A Vienna Congress a.
Their Protection.

Useful Birds-A Vienna Congress a.
Their Protection.
| We have published from time to time the
proceedings of various conferences of learned
men at Vienna, drawn together there dur
ing the late Industrial Exposition. Con-
spicuous among those reported was that
of the Congress on the vital subject Of the
protection and cultivation of forests We
give to our readers to-day the pro-
ceedings of another Congress, in the same
imperial city-a Congress of the Green
Internationals, or Land and Forest Gull
turists, 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 proceedings, particularly the ad-
dress of DIR. Brehm of Berlin.
The learned Doctors suggestions and the
resolutions of the Congress on the subject
will, to great extent, apply as 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 general ignorance concerning them,
of which DR.. Brehm complains, is not limited
to the eastern side of the Atlantic. It
is only, we may say, since the intro
duction of the English sparrow into our city
parks that our people have had their atten-
ton directly 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 sparrows 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
goodfellow), and they are fine singers, all Of
them-the living poetry of the woods and
fields And SO 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, whosee sparkling,
silvery voice carries with it the inspiration of
bright May morning.
Nor must We omit from this legion Of honor
little Jenny Wren and her loving spouse who,
in and around the cosey box or gourd under
the caves of the farmers kitchen, with their
merry chorus and their Industrious labors for
their numerous family, are happy as the day
is long And valuable servant is that never
firing little hero, in bis suit of silver gray, the
king bird, ever ready to maintain against all
corners his right to the locust tree inherited
from his fathers. He and hls mate build
among its loftiest 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 swift-winged
swallow, 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 often connives
at his destruction, upon the himsy pretext
that he is bee eater. Our swallows, includ-
ing the sociable, purple house martin, 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 colo
MES, are among our useful birds, as destroyers
Of noxious flies and mosquitoes.
Among the grub eaters, Notwithstanding
their bad name as pullers Of the sprouting
corn, the crow and the blackbird render SER
vices to the farmer which have never been
properly recognized determination is the
general order against them, when, per-
haps, there is hardly farmer in the country
who has not seen crows and blackbirds fol-
lowing in the wake of the plough 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 woodpecker. The chief
subsistence of these fellows is the toothsome
rub which they extract by chiselling often
and orchard trees; but as in the cherry season
a single woodpecker, in the way of dessert,
may consume o pennys worth of cherries, he
is under the ban. To remove all these sense
less prejudices against our useful 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
for example, of the owl family-are great con-
sumers of rats, mice and other vermin,
although from the general onslaught made
upon the favorite of Minerva by other birds,
when he is caught abroad in the daylight it is
evident they have their unsettled accounts
against him. But the whippoorwin and the
nighthawk are perfectly harmless, while in
their destruction of nocturnal moths and
other insects they are, il be il lucky enough
70 get them, as Valuable to the farmer as
= e n