Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1909-12-02
SAVE THE BIRDS.

| corn, they passed a law offering "a
bounty OF threepence dozen for dead
maize thieves"
The blackbirds, by these means, were
practically exterminated. A few years
DR. Benjamin Franklin. who is quoted
to this effect by Peter Kahn. the Swed-
ish naturalist that "in the summer OF
1749 an immense quantity OF worms
appeared in the meadows which de-
youred tho grass and did great dam
age"
The people thcrcupon ''aba;c] their
cnmity" toward the blackbrds: for
they had observed that those birds
lived chiefly on these worms. before
tho corn is ripe. and consequently the
birds eXtirpatcd them"
Neither birds, nor worms, nor human
beings have changed in the century
and a half since then. The birds
would still continue to save the crops
from insects. II the people would only
save the birds: but they won't
Some otherwise we'll Informed people
seem to treat the preservation of the
birds as a rather small. or. at least,
as a merely sentimental, matter: but
the government exports, who have
made a close study of the facts in
proximatcly one-tenth Of the entire
! agricultural products of the eastern
| United States. is annually destroyed
| or rendered worthless from the ravages
of insects. the percentage OF loss. more
over, is on the increase. owing to the
| decreasing number of birds
A special bulletin just issued bv tho
North Carolina Department OF Aericul-
ture, entitled "Somc Common Birds on
the Farm" emphasizes ahow what
many toillng scientists have recently
revealed and agricultural publications
have sought to make known as to the
value in dollars and cents. to say moth
| ing OF aesthetic values. of the presence
| of birds on the farm whether in field,
orchard, or garden.
| The writer. T. Gilbert Pearson, esti-
mates that eighty species of wild birds
are residents of that state: that eighty
| other varieties spend the summer
months in the yards, fields. swamps,
and shores of that region, making one
hundred and sixty kinds that nest
there. Add to this number. says Mr..
| Pearson. some sixty-five species which
pass in the autumn on their long trip
southwark to spend the cold months in
tropical climate. seventy species at
| least which como from the frozen
| North to pass the winter in this lati-
tude. and twenty or thirty birds which
have been recorded In the state as
stragglers from their usual range, and
total of three hundred and thirty
species of North Carolina birds is
| reached"
This enormous or at least surprising
number of species to be found in one
state is probably duplicated, but with
many different species. In every other
commonwealth of the Union, observers
In Utah placing the number of different
birds already noticed here at nearly
| three hundred
(SPNNia'
birds consists in "thc tremendous num-
Der of harmful insects which they de-
stroy and the vast quantities of harm
full weed seeds which they consume"
1T is no small service" writes Mr..
| Pearson, that a pair of robins rem
der when they honor you by living a
| summer In your garden, and each
| day probably cat more than their
| weight of worms and insects. 1t is no
| little thing to have a pair OF pewees
nest In tree near your house, and
every day Tor weeks and weeks rid the
air of hundreds of harmful insects that
seek to destroy the foliage or to sting
the fruit of Your trees. once watched
n Dewce capture sixteen insects dur,
| ing a period of ten minutes, and in
company with twenty-five witnesses
saw chipping sparrow one summer
seize thirty insects In one minute
He remarks that he has known farm
ers who raised bees TO shoot all the
kingbirds Cbec martins) which camc
npon their premises, because they sup
posed the birds sometimes ate bees
Apparently. they had failedSto observe
that the Kingbird ate anything else
and that they kept hawks and crows
away from the poultry yard. Professor
Beal examined the contents of 91S
lSingbirds stonachs and found that
only fourteen contained the remains of
bees. most of these being drones, while
IS per cent OF the Kingbirds food was
found to consist of Injurious Insects
Many of the birds that have fed large
y upon an insect diet change the char
acter OF their food, upon the approach
OF cold weather, and during the cold
months subsist chiefly upon seeds with
some wild fruit and berries for des-
sert Here" says this writer. lis
where the twenty-five species OF ma tive
sparrows of North Carolina render
their greatest service. They search the
fields. eating the grass seeds which
abound there When the snows come
and cover this food the tall weed stalks
arc stiil holding their stores OF grain
high above the snow, and 10 these the
birds now turn
Most farmers think they have trouble