Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1894-07-02
DO NOT KILL THEM.
BIRDS THAT ARE REAL AIDS TO FARM
Frs AND GARDENERS.


Much Abused Hawk and Owl Render
valrRble Service and DO Slight Harm.
I'M decent person who knows the
value birds that sing, whether their
notes u arsh or sweet voiced, will
ever kill \ singing bird, said natu-
ralist. Thousands of birds that are Of
inestimable N.lue to the farmer as well
as to the town dweller who grows fruit
or keeps a garden aye slaughtered ruth
lessly every year.
1.-The farmer, the gardener and the
fruit grower SHOULD know more about
the birds that pest and sing and fit
about their promises, for then they
would defend atd protect them and i'll
time have themf back in something like
their old tlma numbers and variety.
How often nowadays does one see the
saucy, rich voiced, nervous little wren?
A few years ago 1t was seen and heard
everywhere, buH 1t must be Il favored To-
cality that it Visits now. Yet the little
Wren was 4 most ravenous devourer of
the pestiferous aind destructive cutworm
of the gardens and aid great work to-
ward lesseninS the damage done by the
pest Of the soiL The bright little blue
bird clears the air and the ground Of
thousands of Goblin 'ruths and canker-
worms during ! season.
1.-The crow iaackbilyl mas no peace at
the hands of man, yet flock of them
in a short time ill clear newly plant
cd field of ALI its hosts of destructive
larvae that the 2 low turns up. The great
American crows Itself would do the same
thing If 1t was1 t for the inevitable man
with gun t!tnt just wants the crow
TO try it once! Neither the blackbird
nor the crow d.res rs much for corn as
it does for gruhs, and if farmers would
scatter corn about their fields instead of
putting up scarcrows and the like those
misunderstood birds would never pull
up hill Of his planting. The chances
are anyhow th:S if the agriculturist Will
take the trouble to examine n hill Of
young corn tina he charges the crow
with pulling ue he will find that it was
cut off by n grub of some kind, and that
the crow was simply mining for the
grub, not the trn.
The robin, BIT cannot be denied, is
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 especi;l 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 itflevies 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 Jaws 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 woodpecker is heard tap
ping on tree, it is the deathknell of
the larvae of some destructive insect.
Yet 1t is not al uncommon thing TO see
the very person for whom this bird is
lndustriouslye 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 I'M
suspectinS feathered philanthropist 1t
is n 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 tho
contrary. The white breasted nut hatch
and the little gray creeper-so general
Iy confounded with the sapsucker-live
exclusively on tree insects, vet the nut
hatch is i'll bad repute among many
farmers because they believe it kills
their bees.
1.-THE meadow larl; is another bird
that has little peace on any ones land.
for there is q. mistaken notion abroad
that he is same bird. He is game in
the quality of being alert and hard to
get a shot at, Out is no more entitled to
he so classified than the flicker or high
holder is. TIE meadow lark is a con-
slant feeder on underground larvae. and
whatever he j. 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 well as u friend, for it has the bad
habit of destroying the eggs of other
birds that do only good.
If there is one bird that the farmer
loves to do all in his power to extermi-
nate more than he does the crow, unless
1t 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
mousing, 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 the 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 surnass As to