The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-07-19
AGRICULTURAL.
killing the Birds.

Cause and effect do not always follow
one another closely enough to fully
emphasize their relation, 80 as to i'm
press it upon the average intellect.
That there is any relation between the
boy or man with a gun who kills the
little birds, and the abundance of in
sects which devastate our gardens and
fields, is not clear to many, but it is
serious fact that killing the birds re-
moves the check nature has imposed
upon the multiplicity of insect foes. 1t
is noticeable that even the oft berated
English sparrow has an increasing num-
Der of friends, and the crow has
character less black than ii is usually
painted. Birds that live wholly on in
sects should never be killed. There
ought to be we'll enforced laws in every
state against such a proceeding. He
who does it is doing the whole commu-
nifty irreparable injury. Birds that
feed on insects for part of the time
should generally be allowed to live.
There is a short time when grain is ri
pening when they do damage, and some
of them do destroy fruit; but if they
kill insects enough to balance or more
than balance this injury, they ought to
be permitted to live. The swallows
ought to be encouraged to occupy the
barns, and should never be molested.
One year we noticed they were busily
engaged in flying over the cabbage
patch, and it looked just as though
they were catching the butterflies
which make the cabbage worm. There
is time in the spring when the crows
do damage to the newly planted corn,
but they also kill thousands of insects
as they scour the fields Tor food We
commend the following from the Fruit
GrOsCer to our readers:
The University of Nebraska has is-
sued as special bulletin No. of the
department of entomology and ornith-
ology, "a Plea for the Protection of
Our Birds" by Prof. Lawrence Bruner
who presents the subject, for the great
er part, from business and practical
point OF view. To quote briefly: "In
nearly every case where the food hab-
its of our birds have been carefully
studied, we find that the good done far
exceeds the possible harm. Allowing
twenty-five insects per day as an aver
age diet for each individual bird and
estimating that we have about l J birds
TO the acre, or in round numbers 49,
100000 birds in Nebraska, there would
be required 1,S75,000, 900 insects for
each days ration.
1.-THE stomschs of four chickadees
contained 1923 eggs of canker worms.
Four others contained about 600 eggs
and los mature females of the same
insect. The stomach of single quail
contained 101 potato beetles and that
of another, upward of 100 chinch bugs.
A yellow-billed cuckoo, shot at six
O'Clock in the morning, contained 43
tent caterpillars. A robin had eaten
IT'S larvae Of bibio, which feed on the
roots of grasses, etc.
Sin addition to the actual good the
birds do in the destruction of noxious
insects, many of themlare engaged, at
least one half of the year in hunting
out and devouring the seeds of various
weeds and the other, to us, useless
plants. Such is the mission of the va
rious sparrows, snow birds, hnches and
long spurs which often occupy our
fields in hocks of thousands during the
winter months"
1t is recommended that teachers and
narents instruct children AGAINST the
useless destruction of life, and espec-
tally that they prevent the killing of
birds. The making of bird egg col
lections is getting to be such fad that
almost every boy enters into it more
or less zealously at some time or other.
Some single collectors, in a single
season take 500 or more eggs. This
should be stopped.