Bennington semi-weekly banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 1894-1902, 1895-05-17
Concerning Harmful Birds.

DR.. G. II. Merriam, chief of the divi-
sion of ornithOlOgy of the national Agri-
cultural Department, has for several years
been studying the habits of birds sup
posed to be enemies of farmers. The
contents of the crops of over 1000 hawks.
owls, crows, blackbirds and other birds
have been analysed. The results. as
given in report just made to the depar-
ment, show that the popular idea as to
the ravages of certain birds is wholly err
roneous. This is apparently proved to
be especially the case with hawks and
owls. In many states bounties are of
fered for their destruction. and over
100000 has been paid out in single
year by Pennsylvania in hawk and owl
bOunties.
DR., Merriam's analyses 90 to show that
fully % per cent of the food of all hawks
and owls is composed of field mice,
grasshoppers and crickets. Only five
kinds of hawks and owls ever touch
poultry, and these do so only to very
limited extent The real "hen hawk" is
getting to be very scarce bird in North
ern ATTITUDES.
DR.. Merriam urges that the charge
against the crow even is not borne out
by the facts. Although % per cent o
the food of this bird is corn, it is mostly
waste grain picked up in the fall and
winter. The fact that the thefts of these
birds from newly planted fields are not
serious is because the most of the corn
planted every spring grows, sCarecrows
or no scarecrOwS. With regard to the
charge that the crow destroys the eggs
of the poultry and wild birds, DR.. Merri-
am found that the shells were eaten for
the lime only. and to a very limited eX-
tent And all the damage that can be
done by crows is more than made good
to the farmer by their destruction of ami
mai and insect pests, which constitute
10 per cent. of their food. The bill of
fare of the crow is very extensive in this
line, including as it does ants, beetles.
caterpiIIers. bugs, flies, grubs and other
nOXiOus insects.
DIR. Merriam is apparently an enthuSi
asst and liable to 60 too far, but there is
unquestiOnably much Truth in his posi-
ton. 1t is hard to forgive a crow for his
depredatiOnS on the nests of singing
birds-and he really does mischief there
but it is no doubt true that the ten
dency is to eXaggerate his cOrnfeld work
and his operations among insects are I'M
uutSIl'ldulN NdIudDle. HOW many
grasshoppeIs does the crow eat in Yer
mont in a season? The Herald knows Of
one Vermont farmer who had an inter
esting experience in the matter. He
found that his big hill pasture had be-
come so covered with grasshoppers that
the feed was nearly gone and started to
arrange for abandoning the ground for
the season and putting his stock else
where. But before he got his stock
moved an accidental visit to the locality
discovered an immense flock of crows on
the ground, and he waited bit. He OBJ
served that the crows went at night to
roost on another hill where there were
plenty of high trees, but came to his
pasture very early in the morning and
stayed there all day. After little time
every crow disappeared; and then he
hunted his pasture for a grasshopper
Every stick and bit of stone had been
turned over in the search for grubs, and
the field was as bare of insect life as a
desert.
But not even Dr. Merriam says a good
word for the English sparrow. Nobody
says such word. He eats very few in
sects and is an unmitigated nuisance.