Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-08-08
INSECT EATING BIRDS
APPETITE OF FEATHERED TRIBE
KEEPS DOWN PESTS.
Favors That the Agricultural Interests
Reap From the Activity of Birds
Grouse Family Relishes Bugs.

From the London Spectator
No doubt II would be quite Impossible TO
form even the vaguest estimate OF tine
numbers of insect life which are destroyed
lust at this season of the year by piros
seeking the soft and juicy sustenance which
the young of their kind especially require.
Perhaps II is not very generally recognized
how admirable is the fitness OF Things py
which 1t is so arranged that the young OF
birds. which need for their proper food the
soft larvae of insects, should chip the SHELL
ss a rule coincidently with the moment of
the year at which all larval food. cater
pillars and the like Is most abundant. Con-
verting me point of view ii is equally pos
sible for us to admire the fitness OF things
by which 1t is ordained that the moment at
which the insect life Is most abundant
should be the moment also at which most
birds are seeking 1t for their brood. 1t Is
happy coincidence, IL that be a proper
term to use. for the agriculturist that It
should be so, for were it otherwise no one
can say to what extent the agricultural IN
terest might suffer. The birds which the
farmer reviles for the stealing or his corn
and fruits at later season deserve now
his earne st benediction for their good work
in Kidding him in some measure of enc
mics which are far worse for him than
themselves, because he reaps from these
insect pests no compensating favors. III
of the birds in a fruit garden at certain
times of the year he can prove the facts
of the case to his own satisfaction Cor the
reverse) very quickly by incloslng portion
of his gooseberry, currant, raspberry and
strawberry beds, as We often see done, In
a wre-netting cage with a wire-netting
roof This means, in the first place. that
the birds cannot get at the fruit In the
days of It's ripeness, and the man VINO onllt
the cage will hug himself with delight at
his own cleverness as he eats the fruit
which the birds might otherwise have sto-
len. But little later in the year. IL he
has made no arrangement OF the open
door, into this cage he will find his fruit
trees infested with noXious vermin to
much greater degree than those of his
neighbors who did not try to be so clever.
who left their fruit unprotected. and who,
in consequence, had less of 1t to eat chen
It was ripe The ideal to aim at-and 1t is
an ideal which is far more easy of achieve
ment than most of its kinds to provide
cage which shall keep out the birds eftec-
lively at the time when the fruit Is ripe,
and which shall admit them freely after
the rpe-fruit season, when they will COM
bine their own pleasure with the gardeners
profit by eating up the insects. or course
this happens at later date than the pres
ent when the birds are so keenly set on the
hunt for insects to feed their young fam
lilies.
Insects and Weather.
The insect crop is one which depends very
much on weather conditions The young
bird crop has some dependence on weather.
but not such a direct one, and this year
particularly the grouse broods in many
parts of our Islands are well up to a fair
average in spite OF the frightful inclem-
ency of the nights In April and the very
severe rains in May. In spite, too, of the
GOODNESS of the spring, cartridges In Scot
land probably because of the mild ante
cedent weather in winter, were unusually
land perhaps June Is and 10 may be taken
as the two days on which more partrides
were Matched out than on any other two
days of the year; and 1t is extremely for
tunate, speaking from the point of view
Of those who take any interest in the well
fare of the partridge, that these dates this
year just coincided with the beginning of
the warm weather. The warm days must
have coaxed out plenty of larvae, more
easily affected by temperature than the
birds. which will chip the egg in a certain
number of days. under the protection of
the brooding mothers warmth whether the
outside temperature be low or high; and
the old birds IN consequence will have had
little difficulty in finding the kind of food
for which the little ones ask Some partic-
ular attention has been given of recent
years to the question of the favorite food
for young male birds, such as cartridges
and grouse and as result of this care
ful observation We may probably say with
some confidence that insect food enters
fridge, and quite considerably into that of
the young grouse also although the latter
at very early age begins to pick and nib
BILE at the tender young heather. Indeed,
II Is one among many of the reasons which
make the burning of the heather so advis-
able and so necessary that it has the eff
feet of providing the young birds with
delicate shoots of the plant for their feed
ing in the early days when they are as yet
not strong enough to pick off the oluer
shoots, which are more tough and tena-
cious. The game birds have probably been
made the subject of more close attention
than other kinds in this regard. but 1t re-
qures only very slight observation of the
smaller birds which frequent our gardens
to perceive that they are more busy in in
sect hunting at this season of the year
than at any other The observation is more
easily made. perhaps. by noticing the hab-
Its of the tits than of any other kind They
are such fearless little birds, so often they
are induced TO inhabit net boxes purposely
made for them but whether In this case
or when they are inhabiting a hollow bough
or hole in wall they are not at all dis
turbed If one takes up position close be-
side their front door; and If they have
babies in the nursery one may well be as
tonlshed by the frequency of the parents
visits, which often recur many times in a
minute. and are always made with some
small larvae in the parents mouth There
is no other species of birds which has
given the present writer such a vivid idea
of the vast numbers of insects that birds
must consume when they have young ones
10 feed. numbers which one cannot even
begin to put into figures, because their
magnitude Immediately becomes quite alb
surd and unwieldly. And there is hardly
one OF our more common birds which does
not become an insect eater at this season,
no matter how evil his habits may be-
from the agriculturst's point of view later
on. AS for balancing the accounts between
services rendered and damage done, that is
business which would require an account
ant with very special charter indeed and
would also require a separate account made
out, not only for every species but also for
local differences in habit of the same spe-
cies.
Noxious Larvae
That these local differences In habit exist.
and that the habits of the same species
change from time to time even in the same
locality, is one of those facts to which we
did not give its due value a few years ago,
but which a closer and a wider study of
bird life is forcing more and more on gen.
eral recognition: and with It's recognition
we begin to perceive that the whole ques-
tion Is very much more complicated than
we had supposed II. We realize that 1t
would be more correct to speak of 1t in the