The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-03-20
Cassius N. Clay Raises His Voice in
Behalf of the Birds.

Twas panied to see in your journal
lately an account of the slaughtering
of the crows without protest
Nature seems to have provided for
the greatest sum of animal life. First
vegetables, then insects, and then high
er animals, man standing at the apex.
As general rule, a Just equilibrium
is kept up by natural laws, supply of
food, disease, change of temperature,
destructive enemies, and mans aid.
Inferior animal life is the most prolific
little intelligence being compensated
by vast numbers. Nature strives hard
to perpetuate species, yet some are lost
All insectivorous birds are the allies of
man; without birds the human race
would have hard struggle for exist
ence, and would perhaps be extermi-
mated. Nature, or Providence, if you
please, woos US to their protection by
their beauty of form and colors and
melodious voices. and seems to move
us to friendship by due sentiments be-
fore our reason comes to our direction.
Over all the world the great breeders
of famine-the locusts and grasshop-
pers-are ruinous only where birds can
not exist.
The swarms of locusts, which the
Bible tells infested Egypt, exist yet,
and will sxiee until trecs ehaA bo piaut-
ed or caused to grow in all places where
grass grows; then the birds will have
come and destroyed the locusts. So
the same law prevails in interior Africa
and in the United States All along
the Platte River for hundreds of miles,
wherever 1 saw q few trees and shrubs
there were hawks lowering over to
pounce down upon and destroy the
birds. The prairie chickens are de-
stroyed by man, and between those two
allies the birds are lost and the locusts
spread rum; every green thing is eat
en-, and men fly for life to other lands
or perish!
The phylloxera in France, a small in
sect, has inflicted, by the ruin of the
vine, more loss than the German war!
In early years our State was full of
wood-peckers and kindred birds. They
ate some apples and other fruit; our
fathers destroyed them. Then our veg
etables were fine and perfect; after the
with insects; perfect fruit and vegeta-
bles are now almost unknown.
believe that the quails or partridges,
diSo uCStkOy
many insects. Whilst all of our other
birds feed mostly upon insects, every
bird has his special habitat. The swal-
lows, several species In Kentucky, feed
on the wing; the owls upon the tips of
trees and leaves--pinching off insects,
often unseen by the natural eye. The
wren and sparrow are very active feed
ers near and upon the ground. When
the peas are sown l have observed the
sparrows following the lines and pick
ing up the pea bugs as they emerge
from the ground. There are many
birds which peck the rose-bush and
grape-vines. All the wood-pecker and
sap-sucker tribe eat bugs and not sap.
For many years 1 have kept q box
nailed to tree near my library win
dow; feed about quart of crumbs and
hominy day. Last winter counted
fourteen varieties eating them, among
others, the beautiful red-birds, which,
though naturally shy, have become al
most as tame as the sparrows. l had
rather a sportsman would shoot down
and carry off pig than one of these
beautiful songsters!
And now with this preface 1 come to
the crows. For long years I've ceased
my early war upon the crows. They
are eminently insectivorous. The crow.
when the weather is very cold, will eat
the eyes of weak, PROSTATE lambs, other
birds eggs and young; take corn from
the ground when it is first sprouted,
and follow and eat the soft, half-digest-
ed corn from fed cattle in the fields.
But for all this they shsuld never be
killed. In many lands, the buzzard, as
a scaverger, is protected by law. The
crow is also a most active. scavenger,
but, as said. Is mostly insectivorous.
1 dissected young crows in the nest,
and never found q seed or grain of corn.
L found bugs. beetles, and, above all,
caterpiilars. This morning, all over
my bluegrass pasture, the mercury
standing at twenty-eight degrees Fahr-
enheit, and thin crust of frozen earth
and q fine snow existing, there were
thousands of crows feeding. They
were eating grass and the eggs Of
grasshoppers.
In France, the Government pays a
price for the gathering of these eggs.
Here the crows do the work much more
effectively for nothing. have in my
life seen whole meadows stripped of
blade and seed by grasshoppers. Who
can say that the crows do not keep us
from famine? The announcement by
your paper of the destruction Of the
crows struck me with the same sensi-
5ility as if one had boasted that he had
dried up all the wells and all the springs
of the county! Should 1 arouse the
States to pass efficient laws for the pro-
lection of crows and other birds, l will
have done more for my country than
all the politicians and warriors so Justly
made illustrious. Cdssius N. Clay, in
Richmond fKv. REGISTER, -.-1 ~