The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1894-09-19
DO NOT KILL THEM.
BIRDS THAT ARE REAL AIDS TO FARM
ERS AND GARDENERS.


the Good They Accompiish-Even the
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 a singing bird" said a natu-
ralist. Thousands of birds that are of
inestimable value to the farmer as well
as to the town dweller who grows fruit
or keeps a garden are slaughtered ruth
lessly 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 wreni
A few years ago it was seen and heard
everywhere, but ii must be a favored To-
cality that IL 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 q season.
1.-THE crow blackbird has no peace at
the hands of man, yet q flock of them
in q short time will clear newly plant
ed field of all its hosts of destructive
larvae that the plow turns up The great
American crow itself would do the same
thing if it wasn't for the inevitable man
with gun that just wants the crow
to try it once. Neither the blackbird
nor the crow cares as much for corn as
il 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 a hill of his planting The CHANCES
are anyhow that if the agriculturist will
. take the trouble to examine a 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
axe 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 begrndge
the bird the few quarts of cherries or
berries that it levies ON as partial salts
faction Of tho 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.
'"The climbing birds are the different
varieties Of woodpeckers, and they are
constantly befriending growing things.
Whenever woodpeclSer is heard tap
ping ON a 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. 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 injure trees, but
the woodpecker never does Quite the
contrary. The white breasted nut hatch
and the little gray creeper-so general
ly confounded with the sapsucker-live
exclusively on tree insects, yet. the nut
hatch is in bad repute among many
farmers because they believe 1t kills
their bees
"The meadow lark is another bird
that has little peace ON any ones land,
for there is q mistaken notion abroad !