Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1894-10-10
BIRDS TO BE SPARED.
The Harm They Do Small Compared to the
Good They Bring About.


mo decent person who knows the
value of birds that sing, whether their
notes be harsh or sweet-voiced, will
ever kill a singing Bird" said a nat
uralist. thousands of birds that are
of inestimable value to the farmer. as
we'll as to the town dweller who grows
fruit or keeps garden, are slaughter
ed ruthlessly every year.
1.-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 a favored
locality that it visits now. Yet the lit
tie wren was most ravenous devOurer
of the pestiferous and destructive cut
worm of the gardens, and did great
work toward lessening the damage
done by the pest of the SOIL The
bright little bluebird clears the air and
the ground of thousands of Goblin
moths and canker worms during sea
son.
''The crow blackbird has no peace
at the hands of man, yet flock of
them in short time will clear newly
planted field of all it's hosts of destruc-
tive larvae that the pillow turns up. The
great American crow itself would do
the same thing if it wasn't for the in
evitable man with 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 misun-
derstood birds would never pull up a
hill of his planting. The chances are,
anyhow, that if the agriculturist will
take the trouble to examine a hill of
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.
1.-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 de
stroys, both before the fruit has ripen-
ed and for weeks after it is gone. he
would not begrudge the few quarts of
cherries or berries that it levies on as
partial satisfaction of the debt the
grower owes him. The same may be
said of the other thrushes-for the
robin is a 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
variety of woodpeckers, and they are
constantly befriending growing things.
Whenever woodpecker is heard tap
ping on tree it is the death knell 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
unsuspecting feathered philanthropist.
1t 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 iniure
trees, but the woodpecker never does.
Quite the contrary. The white breast
ed nut hatch and the little gray creep
er-so generally COMPOUNDED with the
sapsucker-live exclusively on tree in
sects, yet the nuthatch is in bad re-
pute among many farmers because
they believe it kills their bees.
| 1.-The meadow lark is another bird
that has little peace on anyOne's 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 a shot at, but is no more entitled
to be SO classified than the flicker or
highholder is. The meadow lark is a
constant feeder on underground Larvae,
and whenever he is disturbed he is
simply driven away from active work
in Kidding 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, un-
less it is the hawk, that bird is the
owl. He can't be brought to the be-
lief that if it were not for the owls and
the hawks his fields would be overrun
duo ny uclu IulCc W buCu oil
extent that his crops would be in per-
petual danger; that owls, while out
housing, feed on myriads OF nightly
ing moths and beetles, thus preventing
the laying of millions upon millions of
| the eggs of these insects, and that
they not only keep the field mice down,
but lessen the number of domestic mice
and rats about barns and cuthouses to
an extent that a. small army of the
most vigllant cats could not surpass.
As to the hawk, the farmer remembers
that on some occasion enc carried off a
chicken for him, and therefore the fact
that the hig soaring bird daily kills
many field mice, grasshoppers, snakes,
lizards, beetles and other vermin can
not be set up in it's defense. The pro-
portion of hawks or owls that kill
chickens is small compared with those
who keep down the deadly enemies of
the farmers crops" IN. =. San.
An Ode TO COlumbuS