Mountain Home maverick. [volume] (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1906-1911, 1906-12-06

these fiery creatures were discov-
cred. Catcrpillsrs with singing
spincs. beetles With acrid sccrctions
that are bitter and burning, bugs
with an odor so fierce that a skunk
is fragrant in comparison, and fruit
bitter and rasping as quinine, and
thousands of other obnoxious things,
are consumed greedily by the
feathered throng."
While sojourning in some locali-
ties, certain species may do inesti-
mable damage to crops, after which
they migrate to other fields, where
they charm with their sweet
music, their good nature, and
their innocent and harmless de-
mcanor. For instance, the bobolink
ravagcs the ri ice fields of the south,
annually destroying millions of dol
lars worth of rice; then, as If re-
morseful, he wings his way to the
north, where he is thoroughly we'll
behaved, where, with his sweet
voice, immaculate decorum, and his
propensity for eating bugs and other
insects injurious to crops, he earns
an enviable reputation. But after
the fashion of ''Jekyi and Hyde,
his methods change with abrupt
ness, and he becomes an incarnatc
ficnd when he returns to the south
ern rice fields. So great pest is
he to the planters, that in one sea-
son 1850 pounds of gunpowder
we're used on one plantation in an
attempt to reduce his numbers.
After examining hundreds of
linnet stomachs, the Investigators
have passed the verdict that this
bird is an abominablc pest, With
but few redceming qualities. He
ignores insects that are injurious
to plant life, and CLEANS his liv-
ing by robbing the wealth of or
chard and field. He works with
systematic energy, defoilating trees,
eating fruit, and scratching up
seed. He is CHEEKY, well-groomed
little fellow, but he is wicked, de-
serving all the bad names and gum
shot bestowed upon him. Birds
are most seriously harmful to crops
when single species is super
abundant in a certain locality, and
there is no remedy other than an
unsparing use Of powder and shot,
else orchards will be devastated,
the labor and hopes of the farmer
be lost, and families left financially
destitute.
Crows do immense damage in
New England corn fields, and about
the only method of protection is to
tar the corn before it is planted.
The efficiency of this scheme was
demonstrated by Professor Beal,
who planted several acres to corn.
Toward the end OF the planting the
supply of tar ran out, and he was
compelled to finish without it. The
areas planted to tarred corn were
ignored by the crows, while the
untarred patch furnished glorious
picnic ground for the croaking
banquetcrs. Though crows are ra-
venous corn eaters, it is stated that
this fault is more than counteractcd
by their usefulness in destroying
harmful insects. In one crows
stomach the Investigators found
the mandiblcs of ninety grasshop-
pers, showing that these birds arc
partial to such food. Robins steal
fruit with vengeance, and many
an eastern farmer has been near
distraction because of the ravagcs
of these birds. 1t has been discov-
cred, however that they prefer vile
fruit, and that whenever it is OBJ
tainable they scorn fruit that j:
useful to man. In the stomachs Of
three hundred robins were founc
the seeds of forty-two species o.
wild fruits, and only four or five
domestic. Because of this prefer
ence. the department suggests tina
wild fruits be planted in close prox
unity to orchards, SO that birds
may be attracted and kept out o
mischief. AS many OF these wilc
growths are ornamental, the ad
vantages of having them abou
would be doubled.
Woodpeckers are both harmful
and useful. The good they do il
in excess of the injury. Flicker'
thrive on ants. In a single stomach
we're found five thousand of thes'
little pests. The ants best liked b.
the flickers are those that befrien,
plant lice, carrying them from on
growth to another, as each become
defoliated. The rcd-bcllied wood
pecker, common in the north o
Pennsylvania, causes some distur