Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-10-01

ing. while Mother Robin was away
from the nest for the first course of
breakfast for the nestlings, I made a
dash and concealed myself in clump
of bushes, within four yards Of the
nest. This was on the low limb of an
apple tree and contained four babies.
On her return one glimpse satisfied
ter concealed in the bushes, and she
promptly proclaimed the fact, with
loud outcries and much ado. The robin
is ever borrowing trouble, Is natural
alarmist, and as frequently as any bird
1t loudly predicts dire events that new
er come; but this time her distress calls
brought a numerous variety Of feath-
cred neghbors to the rescue, who were
eager to assist or defend. With noisy
uproar of mingled cries Of fear, anger
and resentment, the birds dashed and
whirled about, with an occasional one
darting heroically and fiercely at my
willowy head. For a few seconds a
number darted in rapid succession from
all sides at once, in their desperate at
tempts to put me to flight. remained
motionless and silent however; pres
emily they calmed down, and one by
one took themselves off.
Left alone, her mate did not appear,
Mother Robin Gained herself; and, af-
ter few minutes Of suspicious watch
ing, she needed the insistent breakfast
calls from the young quartet and final
ly brought the first bite to the nest at
five-thirty-two.
Presently she steadied down and rap
idly served breakfast. This was OBJ
tained from a garden within stones
throw of the nest. The first course
consisted of cut-worms, brought two
and three at a time. These were fol-
lowed with white grubs, which usually
came two at a time, OCCASIONALLY a tan
gle of angle worms, with scattering
of grasshoppers, beetles and numerous
larvae that were not identified.
Frequently she paused and, with
spiteful- tut tut and phit- -phit-phit, to-
gether with I-know-you-are-t
looks, tried to get rise out Of me.
Crawling ants were more effective, but
despite these held the bush for six
hours without a move. During this
time the baby robins received one hun
dred and three helpings. After all this
food, the brief Notwithstanding
which the mother stared, too astonish-
ed even to chatter, at a sheaf of will
lows waddling across the orchard
was loudly broken by the youngsters
squalling for something more to eat
Young birds, like young boys, are
always hungry-they are every ready
to eat, and quantities Of food are daily
consumed by them. Most parent birds
are good providers and most young
birds daily 'devour their own weight of
food. No boy can equal this! Old
birds, too, are hearty feeders and have
rapid digestion, exceedingly rapid
heartbeats-from hundred and twen-
ty to two hundred minute-are short
lived, but have life that excels for
activity.
Baby's Daily Ton of Food.
It Is fortunate for the human race
that birds consume such quantities OF
injurious insects, pestilential weed
seeds and destructive animals. Insects
are the principal food Of many kinds
Of birds; a score or more kinds live
chiefly upon weed seeds, though fifty
or more kinds feed heavily upon rats,
mice and rabbits. Each year train
loads Of insects and weed seeds, to-
gether with tons of rats and mice, are
consumed.
The quantity of food devoured by in
sects is large-beyond comprehension.
The daily supply for caterpillar is
twice his own weight! Suppose horse
ate proportionately! The larvae of
many kinds of insects daily consume
from ten to two hundred times their
weight. Imagine a twenty pound baby
eating a ton Of food daily!
Among the plaguing insects are flies.
mosquitoes, plant lice, weevils, cater
pillars, worms, chinch-bugs, beetles,
grasshoppers and moths. The appall-
ing multitudes of these, their extraor-
dinary powers of multiplication and
voracious feeding, their persistence
and their devastations and overwhelm-
ing outbreaks, make it easy to believe
that Michelet, the French historian,
was conservative when he said: IF
all the birds were destroyed the world
would be overrun with insects in from
seven to nine years"
Every one understands that the an
nual damage done by mice and rats Is
enormous. There are in America half
as many kinds of mice as kinds OF
birds. Mice multiply more rapidly
than birds, and feed, for the most part,
on those things that man is trying to
produce or has stored for himself.
The insistance and the persistence OF
crowding, choking weeds that never
cease to strive for possession OF the
fields are a menace and an expense to
mankind. Scores of weed plants ripen
one hundred thousand seeds annually;
the SeCOnO year lleSe "ouiu pi ouuNS
millions of seeds; and, in turn, these
would mean millions of plants the third
season. Most weed seeds will retain
their fertility from three to seven years
and thus they lie round, ready at the
first opportunity to leap into life and
grow like weed"
One summer farmer hoed and up
rooted every living thing upon square
rod of earth Later three times he
clipped off everything close to the
earth. Despite these assailings, the
weeds on this ground that autumn
ripened many million seeds. How diff
ferent are the wild from the domestic
plants! domesticated plant requires
far more favorable conditions, is less
able to compete, must have more room,
Is more susceptible to insects and re-
uuires longer time to fruit than wild
plants: but it's few, large and rich
seeds are to humanity inestimably
more valuable than the seeds of wild
plants. Weeds appear to thrive under