The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-26

, cd from the ways OF It's TeHOIC4'
j moved ancestors, for it is no lohgei
e nvclusivelv a bird of the trees. FullS
p ona-ha1f the time it seeks its 1000
] mon the ground, where it destroys
Thousands upon thousands or anus
and shows also upon occasion
2 marked appetite for grasshoppers
= The Washington biologists examined
-, tho ctomachs of one bird containing
moro than 1000 of the insects. Inc
aicker's tongue is particularly wei
adapted for the picking up OF the I'M
considered trifes Of the insect World
The Cuckoo.
There are two species of Amerl-
can cuckoo. the yeIlow-billed cuckoo
and the black-billed cuckoo. Unllke
their English cousins the American
cuckoos build nests of their own,
and rear their own young. 1t IS not
nrobabIe that many persons outside
iof the ranks of the bird students
know the two American species
anart They are much alike in APP
pearance. and their habits are almost
! identical. In the country districts
! the cuckoo is called the rain crow,
because when it is heard to call the
Icurrent belief is that rainstorm
| will follow. The bird, however, is
poor prophet on many occasions
! Through three weeks of dreadful
drought in central Illinois | heard
the cuckoos daily at their noisiest
and while my farmer friends said,
''Tomorrow 1t will surely rain, no
rain came-and the cuckOos kept on
calling.
Tent caterpillars, cankerworms,
fall Webworms, tussock moths and
coddlfng moths the Washington sci
entists tell us are among the worst
enemies of the fruit growers. The
cuckoos make war upon all these
pests; in fact, they prefer them to
any other food. One cuckoo stom-
ach that was examined contained
$50 tent caterpillars, while in anoth-
er stomach there were found 217
heads of the tall webworm. Many
species of caterpillars of the hairy
kind are protected from the attacks
of most birds by their hairy cover
ing In fact, caterpillars of the hairy
kind are practically immune from
the attacks of all birds except the
cuckoOs. who for some reason best
known to themselves seem to pre-
fer as steady diet the repulsive Great
ures.
The Robin.
1t is not necessary to introduce
anybody to the robin. The fruit
grower does not love the robin any
two well, but the bird in the early
spring does something to make the
fruit possible. At this season the
robin lives almost entirely upon in
sects, and it does not neglect the
insects whose particular prey is the
fruit tree. Later in the season the
robin eats quantities of fruit, but it
prefers the wild fruit to the cult
waited varieties, and the man who
has forethought enough to plant
few wild fruit trees about his fields
will be fairly safe from loss. The
robin, however, has so made his way
into the hearts of the people of the
north that they look upon his thieV-
ing with something like tolerance.
Where the bird needs protection is
in the south, where it is shot in the
winter time to make pot-pies for all
the hotels from Palm Beach to west
ern Texas,
The Brown Thrush.
The brown thrasher is almost uni
yersalgy called TIP brown thrush,
though it is not a thrush at all. 1t
is one Of the finest singers of the
whole tribe of American birds. There
is not a farmer in the land who has
not stopped his pillow horses on an
- listen
to the thrashers music as it came
from the top of the Usage orange or
the hawthorn at the fields edge.
The thrashers song earns him all
the fruit that he takes, and if the
song is not enough to give him the
right to forage on the farmers pre-
, serves his habit of insect destroying
would make him paying guest
The Screech Owl.
The owl mas been a sort of an
outcast among the birds from the
time that birds first were. Super
| stitions have clustered about the
! owl because OF it's night proving
habits. The little screech owl Me
gascops asio) is one of the most
widely distributed of the owl fam
lily. The farmer probably knows it
well by sight. and it is probable.
also. that by this time he knows its
value to him as d protector OF his
crops. 1t destroys great numbers of
mice and thousands upon thousands
of insects every season. thus proving
itself one of the farmers best
friends.
Why the screech owl is so called
no one knows, for its note. so far
from being a screech, is a sort OF
tremulus whistling murmur, nothing
uncanny and nothing unpleasant.
The barn owl who doth "a the
moon complain" is, taking every
thing into consideration, probably
the most useful of American birds,
and vet everywhere it is shot on
sight A Oair of barn owls will rid