The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-07-29

clear idea of their general value to the
cultivator, and will easily see that the in
discriminate slaughter of birds is any
thing but wise. In fact, the total exter-
mination of any one species would proba-
bly, bring with it evils of another nature,
extremely difficult to be overcome.
Birds are found where shelter and food
are most plentiful. In prairie countries
birds are confined to but few specimens
grouse, quail, swallows, martins, meadow
larks and the rice-bunting making up a
large portion of them. Plant trees and
their numbers increase indefinitely; for
thus they have shelter. Protect them, and
| little killing with the ripening of crops
| does not prevent their return with the re-
turning spring.
Where do they go in winter?
Where they may find food
1t is related that shoemaker of Basic,
Switzerland, once put collar on swal-
low in the autumn, containing this in
scription:
Pretty swallow, tell me whittier goest
thou in winterr'
The next spring the same courier, by
the same means, brought this answer:
To Anthony, at Athens. Why dost
thou inquirer
Poetry is pleasant. Theory, specula-
ton and sentiment are well enough in
their way. Practical knowledge, through
careful observation, is what the practical
man wants when bread and butter are con-
cerned
A knowledge of what some of the more
common birds eat will enable the practical
man to answer the question asked at the
head of this article in the most practical
manner possible.
Robins, catbirds, blue;jays, cherry
birds, orioles and others of that class are
well known as fruiteaters, as well as great
destroyers of insects. They are undoubt-
edly worthy of destruction by the horti-
culturist when fruit is ripening-never so
by the farmer.
OF the rapacious birds, or those of prey,
the eagle, Notwithstanding the airs he puts
on as the " Bird o. Freedom" is thief
and robber, and not especially brave.
OF owls, the notified owl Scoops Asio)
and the saw-whet owl (NfctaLe Acadtca),
the first lives about barns in winter, if al
lowed, and both are inveterate mousers.
In the summer they also eat large moths
and beetles.
The hen-hawk will sometimes take a
chicken; but their principal food is mice,
frogs, grasshoppers, and various vermin.
The broad-winged hawk eats mice,
grasshoppers, and other insects.
The rough-legged hawk eats principally
tield-mice.
The sparrow hawk, early in the season,
lives on birds and mice; later, principally
on grasshoppers.
The swallow-tailed hawk lives on
snakes, lizards, frogs, beetles, grasshop-
pers, and other insects.
The red tailed buzzard often makes bold
attempts on barn-yard fowl; but his prin-
cipal food is squirrels, rabbits, rats and
mice.
The American crow, so universally and
wrongtully detested by farmers, eats mice,
frogs, and various insects; in fact. is an
almost universal feeder; but does not eat
so much corn as he gets charged with.
The red-winged blackbird has been
universally despised by farmers. 1t pill
ters the ripening grain when pressed by
hunger. In the spring its food is cut
worms, wire-wOrms, caterpillars, and the
larvae of noxious butterflies. 1t is sur
prising what little amount of shooting
will drive them from the fields where thew
flock after breeding time
The purple grackle, or crow black bird,
Is less destructive. 1t pulls some corn, it
Is true, but its principal food is injurious
Larvae, much of which it gets by following
the plowman if allowed.
The climbers include woodpeckers and
cuckoos. They are nearly all beneficial
yel!ow-billed cuckoo especially-qute
common in Northern Illinois-are per-
slstent devourers of that pest of orchards,
the American tent caterpillar.
The Baltimore oriole lives largely on
beetles, especially the plum and pea cur
culio and the long-snouted nutweevil. 1t
is, and very properly so, detested by fruit
growers, from its mischievous habits among
fruits. On the other hand, the orchard
orIole is most industrious bird and well
worthy protcction-r Kidding our orchards
fhosts of noXious insects.
The house wren lives exclusively on in
sects. The white-breasted nuthatch and
the American creeper live on tree-insects
alone.
The bluebird eats the Larvae of insects
exclusively, especially those of the canker-
worm and the codling- moth.
The finch family, comprising about sew
enty species, sometimes spread in tiocks
over large tracts of country, destroying i'm
mense numbers of insects, Larvae and the
seeds of weeds. SO the warblers, as a rule,
are of immense benefit through the de
suuction of multitudes of noxious in
SectS.
The meadow-lark subsists principally
upon Larvae which are found under
ground.
The plover which nests on the prairie
and in corn-felds, eats grasshoppers, bee
ties, snails, etc
The land gamc-birds, although classed
generally as granivorous, are of undoubted
benefit, since their food consists more
largely of insects than anything else.
The ter-birds-waders-a aclass, are
| neither especially beneficial nor injurious
to the farmer The swimming birds
ducks, geese, etc.-are decidedly destruc-
tive, since when they make excursions
upon the land it is generally for the pur.
pose ofraiding upon fields of grain.
Birds may be classified very properly
into omnivorous-those living on vari-
ETY. of food; Observation-Disclosures living
entirely on insects and granivorous, or
those which make a large proportion of
their food to consist Of grain and seeds
OF the first class, crows, blackbirds,
jays, orioles, starlings, cedar birds and
titmice are among the principal families.
These, as a rule, feed Unfortunately on
berries, seeds, gram and insects.
Or insectivorous birds, those feeding al
most exclusively on insects-woodpecke
swallows, night-hawks, shrikes, blue birds,
fiy-catchers, creepers, the warblers (syl-
vla) and wrens-are especially noteworthy
Few of these are hurtful in any sense, and
all of them are extremely beneficial both
to the farmer and horticulturist A few
of them take ripe berry now and then,
hut never To sucb q derrae ae 70 oouso