The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-05-04
! BIRDS DO MANY coon nEEDs.

ed an article on the birds OF the United
States after years Of personally study
ing their habits and usefulness tothe
farmer and the joy they give the
lovers of their song, and from PAM
phlets sent me from the Department Of
Agriculture during the past years.
But after having read the following
letter by Mr.. Frederic J. Haskin, who
I presume derived his information in
the same way as / did mine, and
thinking that it was better told than
1 could tell it, and feeling sure that
it would interest all farmers ana help
to enlighten them, and to also en-
tighten parents who permit their chill
dren to recklessly use. the catfriAe and
shot gun to killmany of these useful
songsters and worm destrcyersS is
why I ask you to publish this article
in your paper. r
HARRY MALCOLM.
The alignofance of our people
about birds of the United States has
often caused grave disaster amongthe
crops and has lost tothe agricultural
element of the country many millions
of dollars year. Whole colonies of
birds are wantonly destroyed by boy.
hunters, not because they are game
birds, but because they offer bright
targets for new guns. Millions of
others are killed by irate farmers,
who are firmly convinced that every
time a crow, blackbird, hawk, or
an owl is slain, that he has done a
great service to his poultry yard and
his crop. This alarming ignorance
and unnecessary slaughter of its feath-
cred citizens, led the United States
Government to make an investiga-
ton. Measures were taken to sum-
mon each gay or dull-coated suspect
before the bar Of Justice and give him
fair trial.
Men with field glasses and other
paraphernalia Of the naturalist went
all over the country and proceeded to
study birds. For long hours they lay
in the fields and meadows and watch
ed 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 inju-
rious to the field next season if allow
ed to grow; whether it was some
helpful insect or small animal, or
someone that each year was able to
destroy whole crops. They killed
many birds and sent the stomachs back
to the head laboratory in Washing
ton, where over 1000 have been ex-
amined, and the contents thoroughly
analysed. A great balance sheet is
kept for each bird, and when the con-
tents of his stomach have been anal
wed 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.
OWLS AND HAWKS.
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 a GER
tain Kansas farmer had had good
supply of owls and hawks few years
ago he could have saved his $I25, 900
orchard which was destroyed by field
mice, these being the choicest NOR
sells on which they feed. The gov.
ernment summoned these offenders
before the bar of justice and collected
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 barn 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 bene6.
cial, the chiefly beneficial, the ones
in which the beneficial and harmful
qualities about balanced and the harm
| full species. To the astonishment OF
the farmer, the preponderance of evi-
dence is in favor of the owl and the
hawk, instead of against hirn, 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 by his bad ones. The
majority of eagles are in the same case
with the horned owl, while six mem
bers of the hawk family are condemn
ed, the cooper hawk being second only
to the English sparrow in point of de-
structiveness.
JAYBIRDS' VIRTUES.
That noisy braggart and freebooter,
the bluejay, was summoned for trial.
The great naturalist, Audubon him
self, had given this loquacious cox
comb a bad name, and general senti-
ment had always been against him.
| In the South the negroes will tell ycu
that he has always been in league
with the devil, and that the reason
you can never find one on Friday is
because that is the day on which each
iaybird goes down to the neither world
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. It was found that the IN
sects he 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 ENGLISH SPARROW.
Al. - f.n1ae