The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-11-01
DO NOT KILL THEM.
BIRDc THAT ARE REAL AIDS TO FARM
ERS AND GARDENERS.

BtRDI ! ia Hn6 n6ft6 T<tO0 ~ "'s"s
ERS AND GARDENERS.
The Harm They Do Is Small Compared TO
the Good They Accomplish-Even tho
Much Abused Hawk and Owl Render
Valuable Service and DO Slight Harm.
"No decent person who knows the
value of birds that sing, whether their
notes be harsh or sweet voiced, Will
ever kill singing bird" said natu-
ralist Thousands of birds that are OF
inestimable value to the farmer as we'll
rs to the town dweller who grows fruit
or keeps a garden are slaughtered ruth
lessly every year.
"The farmer, the gardener and the
fruit grower should know more about
the birds that nest and sing and fit
about their premises, for then they
would defend and protect them and In
time have them back in something like
their old time numbers and variety.
How often nowadays does one see the
saucy, rich voiced, nervous little wren!
| A few years ago it was seen and heard
everywhere, but it must be favored To-
cality that it visits now Yet the little
wren was a most ravenous devourer OF
the pestiferous and destructive cutworm
of the gardens and did great work to-
ward lessening the damage done by the
pest of the soil The bright little blue
bird clears the air and the ground OF
thousands of Goblin moths and canker-
worms during a season.
'The crow blackbird has no peace at
the hands of man, yet flock OF them
in short time will clear newly plant
ed field of all its hosts of destructive
larvae that the pillow turns up. The great
American crow itself would do the same
thing if it WASH t for the inevitable man
with a gun that just wants the crow
to try it once. Neither the blackbird
nor the crow cares as much for corn as
it does for grubs, and if farmers would
scatter corn about their fields instead Of
putting up scarecrows and the like those
misunderstood birds would never pull
up hill of his planting. The chances
are anyhow that if the agriculturist will
take the trouble to examine hill OF
young corn that he charges the crow
with pulling up he will find that it was
cut off by grub of some kind, and that
the CROW was simply mining for the
grub, not the corn.
''The robin, it cannot be denied, is a
sore trial to the man who has fruit
trees and bushes, but if he could only
bring himself to stop and think how
many thousands of ravaging insects that
are the especial enemies of his trees and
bushes that the robin destroys, both be-
fore the fruit has ripened and for weeks
after it is gone, he would not begrudge
the bird the few quarts of cherries or
berries that it levies on as partial salts
/ faction of the debt the grower owes
him. The same may be said Of the other
thrushes-for the robin is thrush
the cherry birds, orioles, blue jays and
many other birds of that class. These
birds never levy tribute on grain or
seeds, but they do the farmer untold
benefit.
1.-THE climbing birds are the different
varieties of woodpeckers, and they are
constantly befriending growing things.
Whenever a woodpecker is heard tap
! ping on tree, it is the deathknell of
! the larvae of some destructive insect.
! Yet it is not an uncommon thing to see
the very person for whom this bird is
industriously at work following with his
! gun the birds red head from tree to
tree until the opportunity comes for
! him to send load of shot into the un-
suspecting feathered philanthropist. It
is pet belief among farmers that the
woodpecker kills the tree it works on,
and that he is working for that very
purpose. 1t is fact that the common
little sapsucker does injure trees, but
the woodpecker never does. Quite the
contrary. The white breasted nut hatch
and the little gray creeper-so general
ly COMPOUNDED with the sapsucker-live
exclusively on tree insects, yet the nut
hatch is in bad repute among many
! farmers because they believe it kills
their bees.
''The meadow lark is another bird
that has little peace on any ones land,
| for there is a mistaken notion abroad
that he is a game bird. He is game in
the quality Of being alert and hard to
get shot at, but is no more entitled to
be so classified than the flicker or high
holder is. The meadow lark is con-
slant feeder On underground Larvae, and
whatever he is disturbed he is simply
driven away from active work in rid
ding the ground of the worst kinds Of
farm pests. The blue jay may be said
to be indirectly an enemy to the farmer
as we'll as friend, for it has the bad
habit Of destroying the eggs of other
birds that do only good
eff there is one bird that the farmer
| loves to do all in his power to extermi-
nate more than he does the crow, unless
| it may be the hawk, that bird is the
owl He can't be brought to the belief
that if it were not for the owls and the
| hawks his fields would be overrun and
burrowed by field mice to such an ex-
| tent that his crops would be in per-
petual danger; that owls, while out
housing, feed on myriads of night fly
| ing moths and beetles, thus preventing
the laying Of millions upon millions of
the eggs of these insects, and that they
not only keep tho field mice down, but
lessen the number of domestic mice and
rats about barns and outhouses to an
extent that a small army of the most
vigilant cats could not surpass. As to
the hawk, the farmer remembers that
on some occasion one carried off chick
en- for him, and therefore the fact that
| the big soaring bird daily kills MANY