Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-06-02
A DEFENCE OF BIRDS
How the Microscope Has ProYed Their
Friend.
xx UNJUST IMPRESSIONS.
The Crow and the Blackbird-rne
King Birds Acquittni-Littie SING
Incoming scarce-The Sweet
CT, Graduate md Her Ways.

,corresnondence of the Dispatch)
ACTON, VA. June /. 1885.
.ors for the blackbIrd. one for the crow
IT, ,or the cut-worm, and three 10
grow" ~
o. chat old colored people used 10 ten
us about planting corn when we were
little boys. This is a libel. Inc iea'hereu
,,,u.d-I,ke another two-limbed genus
60 or,en the object OF gross SANDER ana
MISREPRESENTATION. The Ornithologicai De
nartnent has been for some years
anaIvzina the stomachs Of blackp'rus
and crows, and Is quite ready 10 Prov
that neither is as black as he Is painted
They have also taken up the oudgei-i' e.
the microscope-in defence or the kins-
birds. cedar-birds, catbirds, and sparro"S'
Five thousand stomachs or birds' 'ahe"
at different seasons, showed that popu-
lar IDEAS regarding the depredatiohs Oh
certain birds were wrong, ana that thes
Rove been the victims or much uhyusI
nersec,tion. Ninety-five per cent. OF their
food was proved to have been OF neid-
mice. crickets, grasshoppers' etc. Wrlcn
do infinitely more injury TO the FARMER
than they .,...t tIo
THE kinE-nifl EOl IL NitAh
,s KILLED by the farmers because ne eats
,ba hoes. and IL was found that he ate
onIv the drones and robber-fiies, whlcn
food on bees, and destroy more In a day
than the king-bird does in year. III
was so with the meadow-lark, the CUCKOO
and others. II there is any doubt as TO
the depravity OF birds, there Is none as
10 their decrease in this region for the
past two years. and the corresponding IN
crease in field and garden-insect pests
Where a dozen years ago hundreds of glad
1i,,ie singers could be met with in a
country walk, II is noticeable now that
there IL n want OF sound. There is not
so much music about the woods, or even
I'm the orchards; and the birds fly by IN
shy little coteries.
II il worthy OF remark. also, that since
the past few warmer days have come
and we see the birds chirping and nest
ing about the trees that they are migra-
tory-the brown thrush, the red-winged
blackbird, the snowy oriole-and we miss
the blueblrds. the martins, the wrens'
and the chickadees, who like best the
dwellings put up for them by man. IL is
too early for the piping tones Of Bob
White" for he only comes when 1.-THE peas
are ripe" But we have yet 70 hear the
marvellous rhapsody Of a winter-wren-
called also the "wood-robin'-whO dwells
apart from men and sings TO himself
In the lone silence of the woods. The
marsh-wrens came with the frogs, and
the dusky little swalIows-the chimney
sw!fts-are here, who build their nests
like lovely little wall-pockets and hang
them where the SCOT is blacklist. Bird
life is charming from the modest phoebe,
who puts hei nursery in a cow-shed, to
the gaudy oriole, with its windrocked
cradle In the tree-top. Something Is gone
from rural life when the music OF the
birds Is lessened, and very much more
from the farmers material prosperity
when so little restriction is placed upon
their wanton destruction.
SWEET GIRL GRADUATES.
Commencement-cards have been pour
ing in, and absent girls from the happy
valley Of the Rockfsh are already wing
ing their homeward way. Other sweet
girl graduates viii come 10 the mountains
later TO drink in natures beauty unmO-
Tested and rest their tired brains. For
her first season. OF course. the young
graduate will disdain the ultra-fashion-
able resorts, because she is classical, you
know, and literary, and all that. She
must have solitude. Where else can she
find It so well? In what other place COM
mune with the unutterable and be alone
with her books, and study out all the great
problems for her future life, as here in
these bosky dells and beneath the sha-
dows of gray rocks? She has pretty
gowns-wise mamma sees to that-and all
the mode accessories. and is left alone.