Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1905-09-02

for temporary shade and eat them up? |
OF course you have and you have won
dered. Did you ever take trip out |
inthe country and note the hop vines |
climbing all over, heavy laden with
blossoms, and did you ever stop to
think that out there is the canyons the
tom tit and the robin, and the blue
bird and the cat bird and all the rest
are constantly at work, while in town
and through the settlements the spar
row never makes any effort at feeding
other than to loaf around the back
door waiting for you! to throw out
bread, or else scratching oyer mile
of manure in search of partially d.
gested grain? Why, no, but when
some one tells you, you recall that it
is fact. Well, then, why keep the
English sparrow? He is neither use
full, ornamental nor pleasing. He is
an Internal nuisance, pirate who al
ways flies the black flag and has no
more reason for existing than a bed
bug and ought to be as ruthlessly de-
stroyed.
Oh / love birds. That is, useful
birds. And in the great economy Of
creation there are very few that are
not useful. Take these bull bats, or
night hawks, that fly around in the
evening, making that peculiar sound.
Men shoot at him just for fun, think
ing he serves no good purpose. He at
tracts neither attention by the beauty
of his plumage nor the sweetness of
his voice. He just scars around, hol-
lering Scalp" Scalp" and when he
sits on limb or fence, sits length
wise, instead of crosswise. He
doesn't hang around civilization, but
seeks out rocky place and his mate
lays her eggs right on the ground,
preferring stones to earth. He serves
a very useful purpose, however. He
has an abnormally large stomach, and
when he flies around he is gobbling up
insects by the hundreds Flying ants
are principal article of diet. One
bird killed had over 1,S00 ants in it's
crop. Now, ants are not ordinarily
bad, but if it were not for these birds
they would overrun creation They
are killed at a time when ready to
propagate their species when every
one means hundreds more, and the
1900 found in this bird doubtless
meant millions of ants but for it's ac
ton. EXterminate the bull bats and
ants would overrun creation. The
bull bat also eats beetles, squash bee
ties, potato bugs, grasshoppers and
other insects, and he plays an impor-
tant part in rendering the world fit to
live in. 1t ought to be crime to kill
bull bat, and any one who reads
this is respectfully but firmly re-
quested not to do so any more.
u
The woodpecker is another valuable
bird. Eighty per cent of his food is
noxious insects, the balance being
vegetable and mineral matter. The
robin is great destroyer of insects
and worms. True, he occasionally nips
cherry, but who begrudges him a
little dessert? The blue bird and the
yellow hammer all destroy insects. In
fact every bird l can think of except
this .murderous, pugnacious, useless
sparrow has some use. And again
urge that the sparrow be exteEmi-
mated and our old banished friends
welcomed home again. We need EN-
~ ~
While on this topic let me direct
your attention to another matter. This
isn't bird, but an animal. All over
Utah gophers and ground squirrels
are burrOwipU npdar 1,,oarpa faldc and