The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-05-18
ARE THE BIRDS
 OUR BEST FR|ENDS2 Spring Migration Is Now Al
 Its Height THE HEYDAY OF STUDENTS Uncle Sam's Scientists Find Few Feathered esrabIes-Protec- ton Against Millions of
 'sdoLo ol s6eMeO
THE HEYDAY OF STUDENTS

Providence, May 1Z-(Special )-This week and next are the heyday for nature lovers, for the annual migration of birds I is at it's height now. It Is the one time ! of the year when tine city man who takes an interest in the feathsred inhabitants of the earth is at least at no dsadvant- age with his rural cousin. Every park, every public square, every back yard and | attic window is a point of observation, and even the most inexperienced, un- trained observer can see things more in- | teresting than is told in the best adver- l tised nature fakir's most daring flight of | fancy
 Birds are less familiar to most people than any other kind of living creature, probably. The reason is plain enough; except for the chattering English spar row or an occasional robin redbreast the city dweller rarely sees them and the country dwcller regards some of them in 1 the same category with weeds and others l only as part of the landscape good many birds are of more use to humanity | than a good many animals, though, while as study they are infinitely more inter | esting by reason of their variety, their | intelligence, and our unfamiliarity with
 
 Uncle Sam began a systematic study of his feathered citizens 23 years ago, with | the particular purpose of finding out which of them were to be classed as ben efactors and which as undesirables. l There had been so much complaint against the feathered folk that it seemed ! worth whole to discover just how much of the poor crops was to be attributed ha Aolif iQ m c in power. So the department of agricul- ture organized a kind of secret service, calling upon all good citizens to give their aid in the detection of bird male factors, and for nearly quarter of cen tury now the little people of the under brush the tree top and the free air have been spied upon and shadowed, their ev- cry movement reported, the amount and kind of food they eat scientifically tab ulated, and a ledger account of the harm they do and the good they accomplish has been kept, with some surprising re- suits.
 Recently, ornithology has been acqur- ing a place among the popular sciences Four of the important colleges and uni- versailles now provide rather extensive courses in ornithology and the rudiments of the science are being added to the mature work" of many of the public schools It hes been found in Brown uni versty here, where the study of birds has received particular attention, that the course in ornithology is one of the most popular and is considered by those who take 1t as one of the most valuable In the department of extension teaching, estab- lished a year or two ago to reach school teachers and other busy people who had neither time nor opportunity to enroll themselves as regular students in the col lege.
 The course at Brown consists in lectures and in field excursions taken early in the morning while the spring migration Is on. The birds place in nature the class \ ,fication of birds, their anatomy, their value to man, their protection, and their habits and characteristics, are studied with a view not so muck to making ex- pert ornithologists of a large number of people as of spreading more generally an appreciation of birds and broadening what is after all the most important branch of any kind of education-the un- derstanding of the marvels of the world in which we live. For it is the theory at this university that each well instructed man or woman is a missionary from whom every associate in after life must absorb a certain amount of teaching.
 great deal of good has been accom- plished already by the investigations of the national and state governments and by the Audubon societies, but such inves- tigations as a general thing reach only a limited number of busy everyday citi- zens. The interest in ornithology which the schools and colleges are taking seems more likely to bring Americans to real ization of the dollars-and-ccnts value to every one of the most frivolous seeming little songsters as well as his most se- date brother on wing. The birds keep In check innumerable menaces to mans welfare, whether by disposing of carrion, destroying the swarming insect life that constantly threatens crops of all kinds, or preventing the spread of noxious weeds.
 Their greatest service is in keeping down the insect pest. Dr. Lintner, when he was state entomolegist of New York, estimated the number of different spa cies of insects at a round million, and the number of individual insects Is, of course, incomprehensible to the human mind. On single tree, scientists, by an ingenious method of calculation, have counted 12.- GOO 900 plant lice; it would take a man Il months, working ten hours day, to count them aloud if he spoke as fast as he could. And of all creatures in the universe insects-which include caterpil- lars and the multtu6inous tribes of
 
 petites. Many caterpillars will eat twice their weight In leaves in day, and there are some who are such gourmands that in 30 days they grow to 10000 times their original size. Some of these crea- tures too, when they have lived their caterpillar lives progress to moth ex- istence in which they continue for an- other period their work of destruction. But, fortunately, there is scarcely an ln- sect which is not considered toothsome morsel by some bird or other.
 Whatever affects the food crops affects every American. obviously, be he the farmer who grows the grain, the miller who grnds it, the grocer who sells it, or the city dyeller who consumes it. So there is something almost startling in the figures compiled by Dr. c. L. Marlatt of the bureau of entomology of the national department of agriculture, who says that there are few years in which the loss on the wheat crop caused by the Hessian fly is less than 10 per cent, estimating that on the crop of 1900 the damage approached S100, ,000 900. Dr. Marlatts figures for 1904, for example, put the loss caused by in- sects at $50. .0cO, 900 for the corn crop, s100, 100000 for tho wheat crop, and $530,OOO for the hay crop. while the codling moth