The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1914-04-18
BIRD STUDY
A Series of Articles on the
Habits of Birds That
Visit Madison
BIRD PROTECTION.

Sioux City Journal: Education
rather than prosecution will be the
policy of the federal government in
combating the extinction of migra-
tory birds, declared e. A. Cleasby.
federal game law inspector, in an ad-
dress to the Sioux City Bird club at
the public library.
Women and cats are the greatest
enemies to bird life, the inspec-
tor asserted. Women because of
their vanity in wanting the pretty
feathers of the songsters for their
mats, n cats on account of their
fondness for fresh meat.
A distinction was drawn between
sportsmen and gunners by Inspector
Cleasby. He described a sportsman
as one who is willing to abide by the
laws of his county and cooperate
with the government in an effort to
prevent the extinction of certain spe-
cies of game fowl. A gunner and a
game hog were designated as unde-
sirable citizens by the speaker.
Birds were declared by the inspec-
tor to be the greatest checks to in
sect pests known to man. He APP
peared as the champion of all birds,
not even excepting the hawks, crows
and sparrows. 1t is the belief of Mr..
Cleasby that the birds of Iowa save
the farmers millions of dollars year
ly. Birds in this state, however,
were declared to be diminishing. A
decrease of nearly 3S per cent in the
bird life of Iowa has taken place in
fifteen years, he said.
Mr.. Cleasby asserted that birds
were invaluable to the farmer be-
cause of the fact that they live on in
sects and also eat the weed seeds.
1T has been proven" the inspec-
tor declared, that the ordinary En-
glish sparrow consumes an average
OF one-eighth of an ounce of weed
seed every day. On this basis ii is
probable that the sparrows of Iowa
eat SIS tons of weed seed in a year.
Quail also r great ~destroyers OF
weed seed. and If a farmer is wise,
instead of shooting the quail he will
devise means of attracting them to
his farm. A Wisconsin farmer told
me that he would rather have a
flock of 100 quail on his farm than
a herd of 100 sheep. The sheep de-
stroy the weeds after they are
grown, u the quail prevent their
growth"
Mr.. Cleasby called to the minds
of the club members the fact that the
poet Longfellow had the real econ
omic argument of the value of bird
life to the farmer when he wrote
The Birds of Killingworth." In the
STORY of the poem the farmers killed
all of the birds because they stole
an occasional cherry. The next sea
son the insects destroyed the crops
and made life a burden to the peo-
pie. The farmers then prayed for
the return of the birds.
A modern parallel to the case de-
scribed in the poem was cited in
Pennsylvania. The legislature, up
on the complaint of the farmers OF
that state that the hawks and owls
were stealing poultry, placed a boun-
ty of 30 cents apiece IN these birds.
In a year the state paid out $780,
900 in bounties to save 1900 worth
of poultry for that was the greatest
yearly damage recorded. On top OF
this, however. the following summer
the fields were overrun with mice
and other rodents. The farmers dis
covered their mistake and petition
ed the Legislature to repeal the law.