The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-04-02
MANNING, S. c.. WEDNESDAY. ARIL 2 1913
SAVING THE BIRDS
THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
PROTECTS THEM.

41So1cS4o
Most People Have No Idea Of the
Benefit of the Birds to the Farm
ers of the Country.
Early in April the department of
agriculture will have ready for dis
tribution a new bulletin upon birds
that will have an important bearing
upon the much discussed Mclean
bird protection bill, which was final
ly included in the bill making the ap-
preparations for the department OF
agriculture and, as such, approved
on March 4 and signed by President
Taft as one of his last official acts.
The bulletin will be profusely illus
trated, picturing wild geese, wild
swans, snipe, ploVer, woodcock,
brant, wild pigeons and other migra-
tory and insectivereus birds which
henceforth are to receive protection
from the federal government under
regulations to be formulated by the
department of agriculture.
The bill proposed by Senator Nc
Lean, of Connecticut, together with
those presented to the House by Rep
resentatives Weeks, of Massachu-
setts, and Anthony, Of Kansas, is bas-
ed upon the fact that the lack Of uni
form bird protective legislation
throughout the country is RESPONSE
BILE for the enormous decrease and
even the threatened extinction of
many species Of birds that make mi
gratory passages north and south
each year. It is Of no use for one
state to pass protective laws so long
as in another state, possibly even dur
ing the mating and Matching season,
there is no law protecting that same
bird.
The provision is made that the reg
ulations to be formulated by the de-
partment of agriculture for the pro-
lection Of the migratory birds are
not to be permitted to interfere with
the local laws of the states and terri
tories for the protection of non-mi-
gratory game or other birds resident
and breeding within their borders,
nor to prevent the states from enact
ing laws to promote and render ef-
fcient the regulations Of the depart
ment Of agriculture provided for un-
der the new bill.
The enforcement Of this new bill
is to be brought about by the ap-
pointment of deputy United States
marshals to do the work. Already
hundreds of thousands Of dollars are
being paid out by the different states
for the support Of their game war
dens, and the federal marshal could
go with them and cooperate with
them for the good of the game inter-
ests of the country. The sum Of
$4,000 has been appropriated as a
beginning for this new protective
work.
From a practical as well as an aes-
thetic and humane standpoint the
protection of birds is important for
the benefit of the nation. Most peo-
pie have no idea of the protection
birds give to the crops Of the country.
There is an annual loss Of sS00,0o0,-
600 in the United States from pesti-
vorous inaects, and this loss has
been steadily increasing in proportion
to the decrease Of the birds, most Of
which feed upon them. The United
States biological survey has had the
stomachs of more than $500 birds
examined. Thirty grasshoppers and
ESQ caterpillars were found in the
stomach of a cuckoo. In that Of a
nighthawk were found fifty grasshop-
pers and in another more than 500
mosquitoes. Seventy canker worms
we're found in the crop Of cedar
bird.
Mr.. Treadwell, Of the Boston So
ciety of Natural History, fed young
robin sixty-eight angle worms in a
single day and a Canadian scientist
reports a robin which consumed six
ty-eight cut worms in the same pc
Rod. According to careful estimates
the insect feeding birds of Massachu-
setts last year consumed over 1000
bushels of insects from May / to Sep
tember 80. Yet the damage done by
insects to the crops of that state
amounted to $5,O0O,O0O.
Thirty species Of shore birds eat
noxious weeds, as well as insects, and
at least $50 of the insect ea.ing birds
of the country have besa classea as
game in both the northern AMI SOUTH
ern states. Even the robin Is being
killed legally in seven states. In Vlr-
ginia a petition signed bf 100000
school children secured the protec-
ton of the robin in that state by a
special act of legislature passed last
year. In five states the blackblrd
has been legal game bird, also.
The friends Of the birds spared no
pains to investigate such birds as
have been charged with being enc
mics Of the farmers. For years the
king bird has been considered an enc
nv to the honey bee and because OF
that charge has been banished from
many communities by the persecution
of school boys. An investigation OF
this charge recently has been made
by scientist who examined the con-
tents of the stomachs or crops OF no
less than SIS king birds.
About one-tenth Of the contents
was vegetable; fully one-half was OF
recognizable insects including grass
hoppers, rose beetles, boil weeV1ls,