New-York tribune., 1900-08-20
FARMERS AND BIRDS.

The Year Book of the Department of Agri
culture which has just appeared, contains
interesting Review of Economic Ornthology'
by Mr.. T. S. Palmer Assistant Chief of BioIogi-
cal Survey Before 1850 the value of bird pro
lection to the agriculturist had hardly been
thought Of and the only attempt of legislation
had been to get rid Of supposedly undesirable
species There was then no such general SYM
pathy with natures creatures and love of out
of doors as nowadays; probably the average
farmer regarded birds much as he did the
various forms of plant life punched in his
mind under the generic term of weeds" When
they interfered with his crops he tried to exter-
inmate them; at other times they were merely
worthless. Every boy plundered nests for his
collection Of birds eggs and bagged robins and
backbirds 10 his hearts content whenever he
could get permission to take the old muzzle
loader and "go huntin'" The idea that bird life
ought to be protected would have been thought
too foolish for even the "wimmen folks" to
entertain.
The last half century has seen great change
in this matter. The good farmer knows now
that the birds are among his best friends In
this awakening to their value which has taken
place utility has gone hand in hand with
aesthetic considerations and the nature cult
which protests against ruthless slaughter In
sectlvorous birds have been under legal pro-
lection in Connecticut and New-Jersey since
1885, and song birds were soon included in the
same category Meanwhile the ornithologists
had taken up the question of the food habits of
the various species. They investigated many
doubtful regulations with results very favor
able to the birds. The buejays. woodpeckers
blackbirdS crows hawks and owls were some
of the species most maligned. To-day the scen-
tist is prepared to tell the farmer that even
among the hawks, and still more so among the
owls, some species are certainly beneficial and
hardly any known to be on the whole Injurious
their occasional predatory incursions into the
poultry yard being more than made up for by
their services in exterminating vermin He is a
foolish man who prefers rats and mice to an
owl In his barn.
Perhaps the best hated of all the feathered
tribe has been the crow. Even among his own
kind his reputation must be black one, for all
the little birds are thrown into great excite
ment If he flaps through their grove and he is
constantly the object of the persistent atten-
tions of the warlike lingbird. bounty was
put on his head in Virginia as long ago as 1874
and seven other Eastern States have at various
times followed this example Names crow
bounties have cost her over S12, 900 But Penn
sylvania holds the record in the bounty line
She paid out over 100000 for hawks and owls
expenditure for this purpose foots up to over
$25O,OOO, spent, most of it, as is now recognized
in trying TO destroy species which ought to be
preserved But these attempts have been for
the most part abandoned, though II Is to be
feared that 1t will be long time before the
killing instinct of the farmer boy will cease to
regard the crow, hawk and owl as the legiti-
mate trophies of his prowess.
There is only one bird which the scientist
unqualihedly pronounces a pest. That is the
English sparrow Before his prolific instinct
and pugnacious disposition the bounty layers
have given up in despair and the gentler man
nered varieties of his kind have fed, leaving
him in vociferous but undisputed possession of
the field Game for all purposes but the table
he drives everything before him and is an un-
mitigated nuisance He ought to be shot on
sight hut for the mournful certainty that only
a bird man can pick him out when he gets
among our native species. Any general crusade
against him involves his entire tribe, and the