Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-17
CLAY ON CROWS.
Cassius N. Clay Raises His Voice in
Behalf of the Birds-What
Keeps From Us the
Plaques of Egypt.
The Eaters of GrasshOpper Eggs.
Casaius NJ. Clay in Richmond Register.


1 was panied to see in your jour
nal lately an account of the slaught
ering of the crows without protest.
Nature seems to have provided
for the greatest sum Of animal life.
First vegetables, then insects, and
then higher animals, man standing
at the apex. As a general rule, a
lust equilibrium is kept up by natu-
raj laws, supply of food, disease,
change of temperature, destructive
enemies, and mans aid. Inferior
animal life is the most prolifc-lit-
tie intelligence being compensated
by vast numbers. Nature strives
hard to perpetuate species, yet
some are lost. All insectiverous
birds are the allies of man; without
birds the human race would have a
hard struggle for existence, and
would perhaps be exterminated.
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 senti-
ments before our reason comes to
our direction. Over all the world
the great breeders of famine-the
locusts and grasshoppers-are ruin
Gus only where birds can not exist.
The swarms of locusts, which the
Bible tells infested Egypt, exists
yet and will exist until trees shall
be planted or caused to grow in all
places where grass grows then the
birds will have come and destroyed
the locusts. So the same law pre-
walls in interior Africa and in the
United States. All along the
Platte river for hundreds of miles,
wherever l saw a few trees and
shrubs there were hawks lowering
over to pounce down upon and de-
stroy the birds. The prairie chick
ems are destroyed by man, and be-
tween those two allies the birds are
lost and the locusts spread ruin;
every green thing is eaten, and men
fly for life to ether lands or perish
The phylioxera in France, a small
insect, has inflicted by the ruin of
the vine, more loss than the German
war In early years our State was
full of wood-peeker and kindred
birds. They ate some apples and
other fruit; our fathers destroyed
them. Then our vegetables were
fine and perfect after the birds
have been killed we are overrun
with insects perfect fruit and veg
etables are now almost unknown.
/ believe that the quails or part
ridges, though gramnivorous, also
destroy many insects. Whilst all
of our other birds feed mostly upon
insects, every bird has his special
habitat. The swallows, several
species in Kentucky, feed on the
wing the owls upon the tips of
trees and leaVes-pinching off in
sects, often unseen by the natural
eye. The wren and sparrow are
very active feeders near and upon
the ground. When the peas are
sown [ have observed the sparrows
following the lines and picking 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 l have kept a
box nailed to a tree near my library
window; l feed about a quart of
crumbs and hominy a day. Last
winter l counted fourteen varieties
eating them, among others, the
beautiful red-birds, which, though
naturally shy, have, become almost
as tame as the sparrows. l had
rather a sportsman would shoot
down and carry off a pig than one
of these beautiful songsters
And now with this preface | come
to the crows. For long years I've
ceased my early war upon crows.
They are eminently insectivorous.
The crow, when the weather is very
cold, will eat the eyes of weak, pros
trate lambs, ether birds eggs and |
young take corn from the ground |
when it is first sprouted, and |
follow and eat the soft, half djgested |
corn from fed cattle in the fields. |
But for all this they should never be
killed. In many lands the buzzard |
as scavenger, is protected by law.
The crow also is a most active scav-
enger, but, as l said, is mostly in
sectivorous. / dissected young
crows in the nest and never found a
seed or grain of corn. l found bugs,
beetles, and above all, catterpillars.
This morning, all over my bluegrass
pasture, the mercury standing at
280 Fahrenheit, and a thin crust
of frozen earth and fine snow ex-
listing, there were thousands of
crows feeding. They were eating
grass and the eggs of grasshoppers.
In France, the Government pays
q price for the gathering of these