The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1905-06-21
BIRDS AID TO FARMERS
How Some Prosecuted Species
Are Really Valuable.
GREAT DESTHOYERs OF INSECTS.

One Observer In Oklahoma Tells 0i
Birds-Numerous Caterpillars Eaten
by Bluebirds-Farmers Advised ia
Build Bird Houses-value Of Mead.
ow Larks.
The game laws of Oklahoma offer
protection not only to game birds, but
to song and insectivorous birds, of
which many species are found in the
territory, says a Chandler (Okla.) cor.
respondent of the Kansas City Star.
Game wardens enforce the law against
the killing of game birds out of season.
Rarely, II ever, is there prosecution Of
persons who kill song or insectivorOus
birds. Their destruction is 30 common
as to cause little protest. Ignorance Of
their value to the farmer and the fruit
grower is largely responsible for this
Indifference. not only to the utility, but
the beauty Of these birds. A Lincoln
county farmer who loves birds wrote
lately Of his observations in Oklahoma:
THE meadow lark, while generally
understood to be a grain eater, really
eats very little grain. Even the adult
subsists almost entirely on insects. The
writer recalls an argument with q lad
while we We're blowing in wheat In
January. The winter had been very
severe and one would expect birds at
such a time to be hungry for grain.
b birds We're very busy working oyer.
the ground just plowed, and my plow-
boy companion expressed his rage ut
the birds. declaring that they would
ruin Il stand After having made a
wager with him that the birds were not
eating the grain. the writer killed IL
with his whip. Upon examination my
companion was ~astOnished to see that
not a grain Of wheat had the lark eat
en-. Its c:aw vas packed full of grub
worms and alternating weevil. with n
rev weed seeds. The lark does occa-
sionally pull up a little newly sprouted
grain. but not enough to do any serious
damage.
Inc common %bluebird. nearly al
ways the first bird to nest in Lincoln
county. Is very little understood and
scarcely at all appreciated. The food
of the nesting consists of beetles, cat
erpillars. grasshoppers. spiders and
slugs. The writer. while pruning an
orchard in the latter part Of April, a
few years since. made notes Of the
trips made 10y the mother bluebird
while feeding her brood Of five young.
Between $50 in the morning and noon
she landed ut the knothole forming
her abode in the fence post no less
than seventy times, forty five Of them
with II caterpillar. which was fed to
the clamoring brood. Now. let us fig
ure approximately what this amounts
to. She fed ninety caterpillars u day
twelve days, or 1850 Of the pests to
each brood. We have caterpillars with
US all summer, and. as the bluebird
seldom rears less than four broods in
a season, one has only to think Of the
1000 or more of these leaf eating. pest
breeding worms accounted for by each
pair Of adult bluebirds Nesting around
an orchard to realize in Il measure the
great benefit to be derived from cult
waiting the friendship of these indus
triOus birds.
every farmer should put NJ a lot
of small box houses around his orchard
and garden for the accommodation Of
the bluebird, make the opening small
and place boxes on fence posts or any
place not too high. and the birds will
show their appreciation.
"The food Of adult w%oodpeckers con
sists Of insects supplemented by Der
rles: the young are fed almost entirely
on insects. The small gray woodpeck-
er is one Of the most Industrious Of the
family. He may be noticed working
carefully over the trunk Of Il tree.
Placing his head close to the bark, he
will presently select Il place and begin
drilling. In Il few minutes he will
reach the borer at work on the inside
and drive the barbed tongue into the
wood to draw the worm out. Winter
and summer he is busy, too hardy to
migrate to the south. He, with the
sociable and also useful bluejay and
the comely flicker. spends the winters
with us anG is especially valuable to
us during the early spring. Many
farmers thougatlessly shoot the gray
woodpeckcr for working in their fruit
trees: they should stop to think that
the bird does not work where there are
no worms. If the worms We're not ut
work inside Of the tree the woodpecker
would not be ut work on the outside
Of it.
Some birds. especially bluejays.
catbirds and robins, eat Il great many
berries. We can well afford to supply
them. Many fruit growers in the east
plant numbers Of the old OK Heart
cherry and other trees around the out
skirts of the orchard to feed these
birds. for at the time when the insect
world is astir and multiplying most
rapidly an all wise nature has pro-
vided that these same birds are feed
ing the young broods.
The common house wre has been