The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-04-27
BRILLIANT TALK ON BIRDS

ON BIRDS
 Rev. Mir. Job Before the Grange
 Birds as Policemen-A Big Cat
 erpillar Story.
 A large and delighted audience lis tened on Saturday evening. in the hall of the Housatonic Grange, Stratford, to a talk on birds, given by Rev. Her bert K. Job of Hartford. so said, all though he announced that he had just been made a member of the Grange in Milford. The officers of the Grange kindly postponed their business meet ing until after the address, as many gentlemen and ladies who are not members of the order. were waiting in the halls. anxious to hear the lec- ture. MT. Job began by saying that some birds are useful and some orna- mental. It might be that he would be more ornamental than useful upon this occasion as he was yet tender as a result of taking the first two de- gress in the Grange! He would talk largely about the useful birds, espec- ially- those which are insectivirous and therefore helpful to the farmer. He said that every bird, according to it's nature. has a special work to perform Some look after the trunks of trees; others pay attention to the twigs; some care for the foliage; and some look to the ground around the trees. The birds hold the insects in check. It has been estimated that if there were no birds, this world would be un- fit in nine years the habitation of men, The insects would increase at such a tremendous rate that all the trees, plants and grass would be de voured. A French scientist had made calculations about the increase and breeding qualities of a certain cater pillar. These insects are capable of producing 12 generations in one year, and each female lays 800 eggs. If these caterpillarS were placed end to end they would make a line which it is impossible to measure in feet and inches.
 MT. Job illustrated it's length by say ing that it takes eight minutes for the light of the sun to reach the earth. and that the line of caterpillars would be so long it would take 2,500 years for light to travel it's whole length This seemed to astound some of the lady members of the Grange, while it gave the men a headache. And then to add to the horrors of the situation. MT. Job said that these caterpillars would cover the whole earth eight feet deep- Of course this is French story. and not one of the famous eSti- mates made by the Biological divis- ion of the Department of Agriculture. caterpillars, MT. Job said. birds had been created to hold them in check. and that it was a, very serious mistake to kill one of them. Some birds will eat thousands of insects in a day. They are always rungry. They work all the time to get food. Their stom- achs digest very rapidly, and it is no uncommon thing for a bird to eat three or four times its own weight in one day. If a man should do this he would eat from 300 to 500 pounds of food each day. MT. Job thought it was mercy man did not have to do this, when MT. Patten forces up the price of wheat, and all food stuffs dear and has 9 family Of from 10 to 16 children to care for.
 Speaking of himself. he said he was born in Boston. a town in Massachu- setts, and that as a boy of 11 he be- gan to hunt birds with a gun But he long since dropped that murderous instrument. and now hunts with camera. which is much more exciting, satisfactory, and quite harmless to the birds. MT. Job is a small man, 1.-the of limb. well adapted to climbing trees, | and once he shinned up a tree for the distance of 60 feet, when the wind was blowing and the limbs rocked back and forth like a pendulum. just to get a picture of a horned owl sitting OF her nest built in the crotch of the | limbs. And the picture was a very l in tereSting one. He thought the right l kind of a bird would be much better adapted to exterminati ting the gypsy | moth on the trees in Massachusetts than are men. He knew of one poor | fellow who fell from an elm tree. in |
 
 is now in a hospital
 MT. Job has thousands of slides and l of birds, which he has | made himself, taken all over the Uni | ted States. He goes photographing | in Mississippi. Florida, and all over the New England States. He threw | upon the large screen at the Grange | very beautiful pictures of many birds | common to New England, and exhibit | ed numerous instances where the | mother bird is feeding it's young The 1 little chicks would be sitting on a | limb with their bills wide apart and ! their mouth stretched. anxious to get i the morsel the old bird had brought | to them. Some of these pictures were | very comical and caused the members 1 of the Grange to laugh with delight will eat in one day is simply aston | ishing. Not that these worms do any 1 harm. for according to Darwin, they | are constantly stirring up the soil and | keeping it in a good condition for the l farmer. And but for the angle worm 1 the farmers boy would have little fun!
 The strong point made by MT. Job | all through his lecture was that birds are a great blessing to the farmer, and | should be preserved. Among the swifts. owls. hawks. oven birds. cow birds, sparrows. humming 1 birds. chippies. thrashers. linnets. ! song thrushes. grOsbeaks. and 1 many others. He regarded birds as the policemen of the fields. ready at all times to devour those insects which | are harmful.
 We often wonder how any per=cn