Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1902-02-28
lCommunicated.l
A WORD FOR THE USEFUL BIRD.

MR.. EDIToR:-Your appeal in a
recent issue of the CITIZEN to the
people in behalf of the partridge
caused me to think of our winged
and befeathered friends, the insect
eating birds, and of their many ene-
mics, and that word in their be-
half would not be out of place.
Once in great while articles on
this subject will appear in different
periodicals, but nothing has as yet
been done to protect them, and in
The meantime they are gradually
disappearing. Our age has been
called the age of inventions, the age
of improvements, and justly so; but
equally just it would be to call it
the age of destruction.
1t is not the poor bird only that
mankind is destroying, but where
ever one looks he will see that man,
In his seliishness and greed, in an
incredibly short time has succeeded
in destroying what it had taken ma
ture hundreds, yea thousands, of
years to accumulate. No place on
this globe has been more favored by
nature than this country of ours,
but what has become of these riches
which nature had stored up SEEM
ingly for the benefit of the Anglo.
Saxon race?
The magnificent forests of North
America will soon be known only
through books and tradition. The
rich soils of the Eastern and South.
ern parts of the United States,
which the first settlers looked upon
as perfectly inexhausiible, have near
iy all been depleted by reckless
cropping, and can now only through
years of patient toll and thought
full outlay of money be reclaimed.
The oyster beds of our rivers and
bays, which about thirty years ago
were so numerous and filled with
such dense growth of the bivalves
that it at that time was considered
impossible to break them up, are
now almost gone. And SO it is, in
whatever direction we look, man is, in
his greed for money and in his un-
concern for the future welfare of
his country, always trying to kill
the hen that lays the golden egg.
But l am getting off the track.
1t was about the insect-eating bird,
the farmers most faithful friend, ]
wished to write few lines. The
Creator made man lord over this
earth and put everything else here
for him to use, but not to abuse.
de created the birds not only to give
us food, not only to entertain us
by their sweet music, their beautiful
plumage and graceful flight, but
also to help to maintain the equipoise
in nature in this--that they should
keep down the myriads of insects
which feed on vegetation, and es.
pecially on cultivated plants. Man
misuses this gift of the Creator,
nature gets out of balance and, con-
sequently, somebody must suffer-as
in this case the farmer and trucker.
And when the farmer as a class
suffers the whole country will suffer
more or less. But why is it that the
birds are disappearing? Let us for
few moments look at this. / see
three main causes: First, the whole
sale slaughter of birds of beautiful
plumage to supply the milliners
with birds and parts Of birds for
ornaments for hats. Hundreds of
thousands are killed every year for
this purpose. Next, / think, comes
the ever-increasing swarms of Eng
lish sparrows. These little pests fight
and drive away and even kill
great many of the smaller song
birds, which are not as good fighters
and not as numerous as the SPAR
rows. The third cause is the folly
in great many parents to supply
their irresponsible boys with guns
and ammunition. Give a boy a
loaded gun aud something has to be
killed. If he does not succeed in
killing or crippling himself or the
other boy, and he cannot find any
lawful game, he will kill anything
In reach of his gun, even to hum
ming bird.
Not long ago | picked UP in the