The representative., 1901-01-03
ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS.
Some Interesting Facts Set Forth by
the Audubon Society.

SO"e ihterestinR Facts Set Forth by
the Audubon Society.
The economic value of birds to man
lies in the service they render in pre-
venting the undue increase of insects. in
devouring small rodents, in destroying
the seed of harmful plants and in acting
as scavengers. Based upon reliable sta
tlstlcs, leading entOmologists estimate
that insects cause an annual loss of at
least $20O,00O,00O to the agricultural in
terests of the United States every year
exclusive of the damage done to orna-
mental shrubbery, shade and forest
trees. In the air swallows and swifts
course over in pursuit of insects, which
constitute their sole food
When they retire the nighthawks and
whip-poor- take up the chase
catching moths and other nocturnal in
.sects, which would escape day-f1ying
birds. The wood-peckers, nuthatches
and creepers attend to the tree trunks
and limbs, examining carefully each
anch of bark for insects eggs and larvae
or excavating for the ants and borers
they hear at work within On the
ground the hunt is continued by the
thrushes, sparrOws, and other birds who
feed upon the innumerable forms of
terrestrial insects.
/ The stomach of yellow-billed
cuckoo, shot at 8 o'clock in the morn
ing, contained the partially digested re-
mains of 43 tent caterpillers. E. H. For
bush, ornithulogist of the Massachusetts
state board of agriculture, states that
the stOmachs of four cuckadees con-
tained 1,O28 eggs of the cankerworm
The stomachs of four other birds of the
same species contained about 600 eggs
land 165 female moths of the canker-
worm. The average number of eggs
found in 20 of these moths was 1856,
and as it was estimated that a chickadee
.may eat 80 female cankerworm moths
a day during the 25 days when these
moths crawl up trees, it follows that in
this period each chickadee would destroy
more than 13S,000 eggs of this noxious
insect Professor Forbes, director of
the Illinois State Labratory of Natural
FHistory, found IT'S larve of bibio- fly
(which in the larval stage feeds on the
roots of grass-in the stomach of single
robin, and the intestines contained prob
ably as many more
DIR. A. K. Fisher, assistant ornitholo-
gist of the United State department Of
agriculture, has found that 90 per cent
bf the food of the red-shouldered hawk,
commonly called chicken hawk" Or
Chen hawk, consists of injurious man.
mals and insects, while 200 castings of
the barn owl contained the skulls Of
A5O small mammals, no less than 225
,pf these being skulls of the destructive
,heid or meadow mouse. The carnivorous
birds reap crop of seeds which, if left
ito germinate, would cause a heavy loss
ITO agricultural interests. DR.. G.. F.
iGaumer, of Yucatan, says that the kill
ing of immense numbers, of herons and
pther littoral birds in Y6catan has been
Followed by an increase in human NOR
,tallty among the inhabitants of the
coast, direct result of the destruction
OF the birds that formerly assisted in
keeping the beaches and bayous free
from decaying animal matter. The
Feathers of each and all of these little
Appreciated allies of the agriculturist are
used on womens hats, as we'll as those
of more gorgeous plumage.-New York
Post