The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14
VALUE IF BIRDS
 IN UNITED STATES
  Their Services to Farmers Are Worth Many Millions SLAUGHTER VERY GREAT Cost to Agriculture of Destruction of Bird Life-Results of Govern ment Investigaticn-oId
 Traditions Upset.

From the New York Sun.
 1 Ignorance concerning the birds of the
 United States has caused losses to agri- 1 culture of many millions of dollars. Whole colonies of birds are wantonly destroyed 1 by boy hunters. Millions of others are l killed by farmers who are firmly con 1 vineed that every time a crow, black bird, 8 hawk or an owl is slain the | poultry yard and the crops are benefited. This slaughter of it's feathered citizens 1 led the United States government to make
 an investigation. Measures were taken to
 summon each gay or dull coated suspect
 to the bar and give him fair trial.
 Men with field glasses and other ap- 1 paratus of the naturalist went all over l the country and proceeded to study birds. , For long hours they lay in the fields and meadows, and watched the birds come
 and go.
 They watched what the birds liked best ] to eat, whether it was marketable grain I or the weed seed that would prove injuri- 1 ous to the field next season if allowed to grow; whether it was some helpful insect or small animal, or some pest that each | year preyed on the crops They Killed many birds and sent the stomachs back to | the head laboratory in Washington, where
  l the contents thoroughly analysed. A great balance sheet is kept for each | bird, and when the contents of his stom- | ach have been analysed and entered under various heads, the sheet is footed up and shows whether he Is @ good and helpful l citizen or one Whose existence had pest end.
 Farmer Hates Owl. If there be anything a farmer hates it is e.f. 11tr IA
 seen chickens and small barnyard fowls | carried away in the cruel claws of owls, and he figures out that sooner or later such depredatons will drive him into | bankruptcy.
 Yet if a certain Kansas farmer had had ! good supply of owls and hawks q few years ago he could have saved his 25,Oy i orchard which was destroyed by field 1 mice, these being the choicest morsels on | which owls feed. It was found that as | long as the animals and insects which are enemies of man can be secured, the hawk | and the owl feed on these by preference, | that barnyard depredations come only when the wild supply is Inadequate. which l is seldom. and that the hawk and the owl
 are complementary to each other, the one ] hunting by day, the other by night. The court divided these offenders into | four classes: the wholly beneficial the 1 chiefly benefieial; the birds in which the l beneficial and harmful qualities about bal | anced; and the harmful species To the l astonishment of the farmer the prepon- deranee of evidence i5 in favor of the owl l and the hawk instead of against them, 1 and in the wholly beneficial class are the l birds he has been at war against for gen | eratons-the rough legged hawk, the | squirrel .hawk. and the four kites that are | indigenous to this country.
 The Horned Owl.
 | All the owls are found to be in the chiefly beneficial class except the horned
 owl, and. his good points are equally bal i anced by his bad ones. The majority | of eagles are in the same class wlth the horned owl while six members of the
 hawk family are condemned, the Cooper hawk being second only to the English 1 sparrow in point of destructiveness.
 That noisy braggart and freebotter, 1 the bluejay. was summoned for trial. l Audubon himself had given this loqua- cious eoxcomb a bad name, and general i sentiment had always been against him. 1 In the south the negroes will tell you i that he has always been in league with
 the devil, and that the reason you can | never find one on Friday is that on 1 Friday each jaybird goes down to the
 neither world to take his master the trib-
 ute of a grain of sand
 Although sentiment and superstition
 were both against him. the government
 has cleared him. and has given him a ] fairly clean bill of health II was found l that the insects he ate were the derstruc-
 tive kind, that he ate wild nuts in prefer 1 ence tc grain, and that his few vices
 are heavily overbalanced by his virtues.
 The sparrow family was then haled
 into court The immigrant English spar
 TOW was condemned. While he is the best means of destroying the dandelions
 also an importation-he destroys more
 grain than he saves. It was also proved i against him that he drives away other | birds that are more desirable than him | self
 Acquitted and Compimented.
 His nine American cousins were acquit-
 ted and complimented. The amount or weed seed they destroy annually saves