The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1895-01-22
BIRDS To'BE SPARED.
Tho Harm They DO. Small Compared
to the Good They Bring About.

INC harm Iney 10 Smau OOnnptrSS
to the Good They Bring About.
mo decent person who knows tn,
value of birds that sing. whether theil
notes be harsh or sweet-voiced, viii
ever kill single Bird" said natura
list. thousands of birds that are o
inestimable value to the farmer, al
well as to the town dweller who grows
fruit or keeps a garden, are siausS
tered ruthlessly every year.
'The farmer, the gardener, and the
fruit grower should know more about
the bin DIS thatnestan sing about their
premises, for then they would defend
and protect them, and in time have
them back in something like their
oldtime numbers and variety. How
often nowadays does one see the saucy,
rich-voiced, nervous little wren? a
few years ago 1t was seen aud heard
everywhere, but it must be favored
locality that 1t visits now. Yet the
little wren was most ravenOus de-
gvourer Of the pestiferous and destruc-
tive cut-worm of the gardens, and did
great work toward lessening the
damage done by the post OF the soil.
The bright little bluebird clears the air
and the ground OF thousands of coodlin
moths and canker worms during u sea-
son.
"The crow blackbird has no peace
at the hands OF man, yet flock of
them in q short time will clean q new-
ly planted field of all its hosts of des-
structive larvae that the plough turns
up. The great American crow itself
would do the same thing if it wasn't
for the inevitable man with tho gun
that just wants the crow to try it once.
Neither the black bird nor the crow
cares as much for corn as 1t does for
grubs, and Ii farmers would scatter
corn about their fields instead of put
ting up scarecrows and tho 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 o hill
of young corn that he charges the
crow with pulling up, he will find that
1t was cut off by agrub of some kind,
and that tho crow was simply mining
for the grub, not the corn.
"Tt a robin, it cannot be denied, is u
sore ti-al to the man who has fruit
trees aiiD. bushes, but If he could only
bring hk ,self to stop and think how
MANY thousands of ravaging insects
that are the especial enemies of his
trees and bushes that the robin des-
troys both before the fruit has ripened
and for weeks after it is gone he would
not begrudgo the bird the few quarts or
cherries or berries that it levles on as
partial satisfaction of the debt the
grower owes him. The same may be
said OF tho other thrushes-for the
robin is thrush-the cherry birds,
orioles, bluejay and many other birds
of that class. Thee birds never levy
tribute on grain on seed, but they do
the farmer untold benefit.
"The climbing birds are the differ
ent varities OF wOodpeckers, and they
are constantly b6friending growing
things. Whenever a woodpecker is
heard trapping on atreo 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 industrlously at work fol-
from tree to tree until the opportunity
comes for him to send load of shot
into the eunsuspecting feathered philan-
uhropist. 1t is pet belief among
farmers that the wOodpccker kills the
tree it works on, and that hc Is work
ing for that very purpose. 1t is a
fact that the common little sapsucker
does injure trees, but the woodpcckcr
never does Quite the contrary. The
whitc-breasted nuthatch and the little
gray creeper-so generally confOunded
with tho sapsucker-live exclusively
Oh trNc insects, yet the nuthatch is in
bad roputc among many farmers, be-
cause they believe it Kills their trees.
"The meadow lark is anothr bird
that has little peace on any One's land,
for there is mistaken notion abroad
that he is game bird. He Is game in
A. I,i al ~ n
got u shot at, but isno 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
kind Of farm pests. The bluejay may
be said to be indirectly an enemy to
the farmer as we'll as IL friend, for 1T
has tho bad habit of destroying the
eggs of other birds that do only good.
"If there is one bird that the far
NOR loves to do all in his power to
eXterminate 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 extent that his croys would
be in perpetual danger [; that owls,
while out mousing, feed on myraids OF
night-hying 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 q
small army Of the most vigilant cats,
could not surpass. AS to the hawks
the farmer remembers that on some
occasion one carried of a chicken for
him, and therefore the fact that the
big soaring bird daily kills many field
mice, grasshoppers, snakes, Lizards,
beetles and other vormin cannot be
sou up in its defence. The proportion
OF hawks or owls that kill chickens is
small, compared with those who kecl
down tho deadly enemies of tho far
mers' crop.
A STORY OF LINCOLN The First