Johnstown weekly Democrat. (Johnstown, Cambria County, Pa.) 1889-1916, 1890-04-11
SPARE THE BIRDS.

With the return Of spring the birds re
turn. They are not the least pleasing OBJ
jects in the cheerful scene, and their
songs add much to the joys of the season.
Like the flowers, the fresh leaves, and the
balmy airs, they are so regular and con-
slant in their return, that they are not al
ways much noticed. 1t seems matter of
course. We have always seen them at
this season, and we think little about
them. If they were once TO fail of their
return, we should sadly miss them.
The wisdom of legislation for the pro.
lection of cur birds is beginning to be
seen. Birds arc noticeably more numcr.
Gus than they were some years ago.
At the rate with which they were
being destroyed, few years more
would have witnessed the slaughter of the
last of the feathcred innocents, and bugs
and worms of every loathsome and pestif.
erous kind, like the frogs of ancient
Egypt, would have been in every mans
house, and in his bed, and in his oven,
and in his kneadng trough. And it
would have b, EN- good for him, for he
would have deserved it. Still there Is TOO
much killing of birds, partly through
Ignorance, and partly through thought
lessness. We would hope that the laws
for the preservation of our singing and
inscctivorous birds would be vigorously
enforced.
The birds are mans best friends. Not
only their beauty, their Iiveline IS, and
their voices delight him, but their SER
vices to him in destroying insects aud
worms ae of incaculable value. Birds"
says Wilson Flagg, are the chief and al
most the only instruments employed by
Nature for checking the multiplication Of
insects which otherwise would spread dew
astation over the whole earth They are
always busy in their great work emigrat-
ing from place to place, as the changes of
the season cut off their supplies in one
country and raises them in another. Man
destroys the forests, and eXterminates the
birds after depriving them of their homes.
But the1nsects, whose extreme minuteness
renders them unassaiiable by his weapons,
he cannot destroy, and Nature allows them
to multiply and become q scourge to him,
as it in just retribution for his cru.
NihJ W thp lCdlhCICu IdCGS, WHO are MS
benefactors. If man would permit, the
birds that feed upon these insects would
keep pace with their increase, and pre-
vent the damage they cause to vegetation.
But, too avaricious to allow the birds to
live, lest they should plumber fruit enough
to pay them the wages for their useful
labors, he destroys the eXterminator of
vermin, and thus, to save little of his
fruit from the birds, he sacrifices his
orchards to the insects"
The number of injurious insects and
worms destroyed by the birds can be un-
derstood only from actual observation.
MIR. Flagg says that a pair of birds that
were raising a young bird were closely
watched, and it was found that they con-
consumed not less than five hundred cat
erpillars in one day At this rate, fifteen
thousand would be destroyed in thirty
days, and for every hundred such nests
million and a half of caterpillars would be
destroyed in the course of one month.
Where certain species of birds, such as
crows, woodpeckers, etc., have been ex-
terminated, the ravages of certain kinds
of insects have been terrible. Mr. Flagg
thinks that the alarming increase of grass
hoppers in some parts of the west, is the
consequence of the wholesale destruction
of quails, grouse, and other birds in those
segions]