The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1881-01-20
Beneficial Wild Birds.

At a recent meeting of tho Ontario
agricultural commission held at London,
Mr.. William Z. Sanders, the well-known
Canadian ornithologist gave an account
of some inscctivorous birds that were
worthy of encouragement. He said he
had been engaged in the study of birds
for the last seven or eight years, and
had examined the crops of probably
shout two hundred; Of the birds which
were purely in-ectivorous, the most
common was the largest family OF
warblers, Of which the yellow warbler
end the red start mostly took their food
on the wing, but partially on the
branches Of trees; of the birds which
took their food exclusively on the wing
there were the fy-catchers, which in
clnded the king bird and the peewee;
their food was chiefly flies. Moths were
numerously caught by nishthawks, and
these altogether with s,he swallows he
considered birds beneficial to the farmer
and fruit-grower. Of the birds which
fed partly on the wing and partly on
trees, the food of the yellow warbler
consisted chiefly of the larve and eggs
of moths, which they took from the
leaves of trees; the vireds and cuckoos
were birds of the same class, and simil-
arly beneficial. The bluebird fed most
ly on insects, though it might take grain
when it's favorite diet was not obtain
sble. The insects devoured by tho last
described class Of birds we're mostly in
furious to the orchadist and the farmer.
The nuthatch, which was a very
common bird, stayed in these latitudes
the year round, and lived almost en-
tirely on insects and their eggs, and
chrysalides. The woodpeckers mostly
took their food upon trees. The red
headed variety were generally consider
ed pest on account Of their devouring
SO much fruit, chiefly cherries and ap-
Piles. The high-holder woodpeckers
ries, was on the whole bird which
should be protected. owing to the num-
Der of insects it devoured. The hairy
and downy woodpeckers and the yellow
bellied variety were commonly, but he
suckers, and accused of destroying
fruit and other trees by extracting the
sap from them, lie had never seen
trees injured by them, and they were
beneficial birds in his estimation.
OF the birds which ate their food up
on the ground there was first the thrush
es, including the robin, the tawny
thrush, the brown thrush, and the cat
bird From his examination of the
n1aws of the robin he had very little to
say in his favor, as they were very de-
structive to cherries and other fruits,
and ate very few insects-chiefiy cole
optera-and then only when it could
not get fruit; the cat bird was allied to
the robin, and like it was destructive to
raspberries; the tawny and the brown
thrushes were almost exclusively in
sectivorous. The food of the blackbird
family-which included the red-winged
blackbird, the crow blackbird, the cow
bird, tbs meadow lark. and the oriole-
consisted largely of beetles and Larvae;
the crow blackbird, however. lived
almost entirely on grain; while the COW
bird, like the European cuckoo, was
decidedly injurious by laying its eggs
in the nest of other and beneficial birds,
whose young were generally starved to
death, owing to the greater size and
more clamorous appitite of the intrud
ing brood; the red-winged blackbird
fed on the larvae of beetles in the spring,
but in the fall it devoured grain.
About 25 per cent of the food of the
meadow lark consisted of beetles and
other insects, the remainder being
vegetable food, but of what kind he had
been unable to ascertain. The Bathurne
oriole was beneficial to the farmer.
The sparrow we're all pretty much grain
feeders, though the grey bird or chip
ping sparrow fed largely on insects.
Our variety, the purple finch, devoured
the buds of trees, and was injurious on
that account The indigo bird fed
mostly on the seeds of grass and weeds.
The English sparrow seemed to feed
about equally on seeds and insects, but
he had not examined their stomachs.