The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-14

millions of dollars to the country. Rag
 weed, pigweed bndweed. crab grass,
 panic grass and pigeon grass all furnish
 seeds that are choice morsels to these
 busy little fellows. From 10 to 20 per
 cent of their food is insects and made up
 of pests They are an excellent army for
 checking locusts. but do not take kindly
 to hairy caterpillars and tobacco worms.
 Dr. F. F.. L. Beal, assistant ornitholo- gist of the biological survey. figuring on a
 conservative basis, estimates that the tree sparrows in Iowa destroy 1, ,13o,O00 tons of
 weed seed a year. This allows only a
 fourth of an ounce of seed daily to each
 sparrow Estimating from this basis on
 a general field crop of s2,ooo, 900, the spar
 rows can be counted on saving the nation
 SEQ 100000 a year.
 The little country boy planting corn has
 a way of dropping several grains in each
 hill singing as he does it. "One for the
 blackbird, one for the crow; two for the
 cutworms. and one to grow This was considered of sufficient weight to be a warrant for the arrest of the crow and the
 blackbrd.
 To the world in general the crow has
 ever been known as thief and coward.
 He was accused of pulling up corn, of eat
 ing fruit and eggs, and of playing marau- der on the homes of other birds.
 All these offenses were proved against him. but evidence was also introduced to show that he ate cutworms, which de- stroyed more corn than he did, that he made many meals off graSshoppers alone, and that wild fruits were good as tame fruits, in his opinion. So the spirit of justice declares the crow a more helpful
 than harmful fellow.
 Red Winged Black Bird. The red winged blackbird too came out
 with fairly good record though he had f1rar in sections. His brother the bobolink, or
 rice bird, did not get off so easily, for 1 that sweet voiced rogue was caught with the goods on, and 1t was proved that the
 rice growers lose s2.0oo,0oo year on his l account.
 1 The buzzard and the seagull have al- ways enjoyed a certain immunity from ! death at the hands of the men and boys | of the country. The amount of scavenSer | duty they do Is enormous and there is a | taclt understanding the country over that | they should be unmolested.
 l Georgia has earned for herself the name 1 of the Buzzard State because of a law on ! her statute books protecting buzzards. On | the seacoast, and especially in the Golden | Gate of California, the guills are an in- | valuable aid to the health departments,
 removing as they do all refuse and all 1 dead fish.
 1 When the boil weevil crossed the line l from Mexico and came up into Texas | to feed on the cotton there the United 1 States government immediately appealed | to the bird kingdom for aid. It offered 1 them boil weevils to eat and wondered | how many they would like a day. 1 The Carolina wren, the tomtit. the tit
 lark, the phoebe the Florida and Western 1 meadow lark. the red wing blackbird, 1 the savanna and white throated sparrows, 1 the killdeer, the thrasher and the bob l white responded and attacked the enemy | with varying degrees of efficiency. The | biological survey urges every possible means of bird protection throughout the