The Owosso times. (Owosso, Mich.) 1897-1926, 1907-05-17

yard and crops This alarming ignor-
ance and unnecessary slaughter of its
feathered citizens, led the United States
government to make an investigation
Measures were taken to summon each
gay and dull-coated suspect before the
bar of justice and give him a fair trial
Men with field glasses and other par
aphernalia of the naturalist went all
oyer 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
they liked best to eat, whether it was
marketable grain, or the weed seed that
would prove injurious to the field next
season if allowed to grow; whether it
was some helpful insect or small animal,
or some one that each year was able to
destroy whole crops. They killed many
birds and sent the stomachs back to the
head laboratory in Washington where
over II, 600 have been examined, and the
contents thoroughly analysed. A great
balance sheet is kept for each bird, and
when the contents of this stomach have
been analysed and entered under various
heads, the sheet is footed up and shows
in carefully proved figures whether he is
good and helpful citizen, or one whose
existence had best end.
If there be anything farmer hates it
is an owl or hawk. Occasionally he
has seen chickens and small barn yard
fowls carried away in their cruel claws,
and he figures out that sooner or later
such depredations will drive him into
bankruptcy. Yet if certain Kansas
farmer had had good supply of owls
and hawks few years ago he could have
saved his $l25, 200 orchard which was
destroyed by field mice. these being the
choicest morsels on which they feed.
The government summoned these Offend
ers before the bar of justice, and col
lected evidence for and against them 1t
was found that as long as the animals
and insects which are enemies of man
can be secured. that the hawk and the
owl feed on these by preference, that
barry yard depredations come only when
the wild supply is inadequate, which is
rare, 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
chiefly beneficial, the ones IN which the
beneficial and harmful qualities about
balanced, and the harmful species. To
the establishment of the farmer the pre-
ponderance Of evidence is in favor of the
owl and hawk, instead of against him,
and in the wholly beneficial class are
the ones he has been at war against for
generations-the rough-legged hawk,
the squirrel hawk, and the four kites
that are indigenous to this country. All
the owls are found to be in the chiefly
beneficial class except the horned owl,
and his good points are equally balanced
are in the same case with the horned
owl, while six members of the hawk fam
lily are condemned, the Cooper hawk be-
ing second only to the English sparrow
in point of destructiveuess.
That noisy braggart and free booter,
the blue jay, was summoned for trial.
The great naturalist, Audubon himself,
had given this loquacious coxcomb bad
name, and general sentiment had always
been against him. In the south the ne
groes will tell you that he has always
been in league with the deyil, and that
the reason you can never find one on
Friday is because that is the day on
which each jay-bird goes down to the
netherworld to take his master the
tribute of grain Of sand Although
sentiment and superstition were both
against him, the government has cleared
him, and has given him fairly clean
bill of health. 1t was found that the in
sects ne ate were the destructive kind,
that he ate wild nuts in preference to
grain, and that his few vices are heavily
overbalanced by his virtues.
The sparrow family was then hailed
into court. The immigrant English |
sparrow was condemned While he is |
the best means of destroying the dan
delion-also an importation-he des-
troys more grain than he saves 1t was
also proved against him that he drives |
away other birds that are more desira
BILE than himself His nine American
cousins were acquitted and compliment
ed. The amount of weed seed they de-
stroy annually saves millions of dollars
TO the country Rag. weed, pig weed,
- 10y d.. z1izI9