The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-06-23
OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS.
Usefulness in Destroying Insects and
Seeds of hoxlous weeds.

W. S"'SS
To tile Editor of The Neus ana
Courier: [ have long marked with ap'
proval the intelligent and persistent
effort of the News and Courier tc
arouse public interest in the preser,
Walton Of our birds. This, in my opin.
ion, is indeed a Campaign Of educa.
tion," of infinitely greater value to the
State than any we are likely to have
upon political topics. With the view
Of contributing my mite to the cause,
and at the risk of the suggested "writ
de lunatico," etc, I again intrude upon
your space.
1t is, in my opinion, great mistake
that more attention is not paid in the
education Of our youth to the study Of
birds. The greater part Of u popu-
lation is, and it is hoped will ever re-
main, agriculturists, and our feather
ed friends are of such inestimable val
ue to the farmer that his children
should be made we'll acquainted with
them. Strange as it may appear to
sore of your readers I fail to recall a
single one of our native or migratory
birds which is not Of value to the
farm-even the predatory hawks.
While they do levy occasional contri-
buttons upon the poultry yard, they
more than pay for this single item Of
damage by the destruction Of the
young of minks, weasels and rats, in
keeping within reasonable bounds the
numbers of black birds and crows, and
in preventing the multiplication of
rabbits to the danger point. The birds
Of prey, like beasts Of prey, were de-
signed by Infinite Wisdom for wise
purposes, and the absence Of such (as
in Australia, for instance,) would
prove a great curse to the country.
The crow is generally under this ban,
and as an outlaw is legitimate game at
all seasons. Fortunately, perhaps, for
us, he is very we'll able to take care of
himself and defes all efforts to reduce
his numbers. About the only two
things I have we had to complain Of
the crow was the pulling up of young
corn in the spring and the destruction
of melons later on, and I wish to tell
my brother farmers how both may be
avoided at little cost of either money
or labor. AS is we'll known the crow
is the wariest and most suspicious Of
birds, and, taking advantage of this
characteristic, ell that is necessary to
keep him away from any given place
is to string a lot of threads atiutervals
of not exceeding thirty or forty feet
across the forbidden space, suspend
ing small streamers Of cloth or bolls
of cotton lint therefrom at convenient
points. If any farmer will buy two
and a half cents worth per acre Of
strong factory thread and string it
across his corn field or melon patches,
at the proper time, using canes or very
small poles to hold it above the horses
heads while cultivating, I guarantee
that he will lose no corn in that field
and that his melons will not be touch
ed by them. This is infinitely better
than wasting time hunting them with
guns or killing out all the useful birds
upon the land in the insane attemptto
poison the crows. It is perhaps well
within the truth to say that one hun
dred cartridges, doves and other use
full birds are poisoned every year to
one crow, by use of %strychnine in grain.
Such folly ought to be prohibited un-
der the head Of malicious mischief
All Of the birds which winter here,
excepting the hawk, owl, vulture and
peckerwood tribes, necessarily subsist
during the greater part of that season
upon grain, vegetables and grass seeds
and without their assistance the nox-
ious weeds and grapes would take the
land in spite of the farmers efforts at
destruction. The Quantities Of weed
and grass seeds annually destroyed by
quail, doves, field larks, thrushes,
jorees, red birds, sparrows and snow
birds is simply i%ncalcuable, while
duringqthe summer each and every
one Of those that remain here lives
upon mixed rations Of fruit and insects
exercising a wisdom which might we'll
be emulated by the human race in
never bringing a family into existence
until there is plenty at hand to rear 1t
upon.
OF all our native ''insect police"
the quail is the most valuable. 1t
never feeds it's young, but as soon as
Matched takes the whole brood, twelve
to fourteen in number, abroad to be-
gin a summer campaign against every
thing that creeps, hops or flies IN the
shape of bug. Their range is local
and as we'll defined as the b~arnyard
fowl, and within that range certain
death awaits the bug or insect that
shows himself by day. The mocking
bird and thrush are almost equally
valuable and much more domestic, al
though more fond Of fruit and berries.
I remember on one cloudy morning Il
am fond of cloudy mornings for that
kind of job) I was hoeing in the gar
den, where the cut worm was playing
havoc among the young plants. A
brown thrush, which had its nest and
a lot of young just cover the garden
WALL" came near me and picking up q
cut worm, flew away to her young, and
this was repeated six times in fifteen
minutes. No reasonable sum could
have induced me to harm that pair,
for, aside from their beauty Of form
and melody of song, Zone Of the sweet
est We have,) there was ocular demon
stration of the vast utility of our
friends from a practical point of view.
"Sweet-mouth Kate" the beautiful
and domestic cat bird, whose liquid
notes at eventide are even sweeter
than the mocking birds, is an excel
lent insect policeman and should be
encouraged and protected.
All of our migratory birds arc al
most purely inscctivorous-that is the
reason they go South in winter, be-
cause they could not live here, as the
lamented blue birds found out. | am
greatly obliged to your %Spartanburg
Correspondent for the hope that We
will have them again-when they
have time to multiply and %replenish,
To the migratory class belong the fly:
catchers and their name is legion, and
the superb scarlet tawager, whose
sweet notes in the oaks outside are
RINGING rs write. A prettier anC