Rocky Ford enterprise., 1916-06-02

IN EMINENT American ornithologist
Gently was asked to name the ten most
beneficial birds of the United States.
Here Is his answer: Nighthawk, kill
NJ n deer plover. chimney swift, bluebird
Va downy woodpecker, phoebe, chickadee.
n& n barn swallow. purple martin and chip
NNEY ping sparrow.
o0 Having given the names of the ten
birds over whose good deeds man should
rejoice the ornithologist said. But the list is
longer. There other birds and many Of
them, that work as hard or nearly as hard for
man those which have named. Between
30 and 40 species there is small room for choice
but let the ten stand because the list perhaps
cannot be improved upon" +
Later the scientist wanted to hedge Httle
for he said that there were some birds Of prey
which at least should have place side by side
with the familiars of orchard and garden to
which he had given first rank. The cause of the
birds Of prey. however. has been pleaded before
The barn owl. the sparrow hawk and some
others have been given their credit marks but
1t fs to be doubted perhaps, II anything which
can be said in behalf of predatory one which
occasionally picks up chicken will serve to
save Its life when 1t is caught in the act of lar
ceny. Not one of the birds in the Table of Ten
Is thief. Honest, wellmeaning cheerful, and
for the most part neighborly. they go through
their lives working. which means eating. in order
that man more fully may reap what he has sown
1t is admittedly probable that some close stu
dents Of the habits of birds may dispute the
curacy of the list as 1t is gven but 1t is not
likely that anyone who has watched the daily
operations of these friends In feathers from night
hawk to chipping sparrow will be able to prove
that so much as one black mark should be entered
on the daily records OF their lives.
BY their appetites ye shall know them. bird
is good or bad from the agricuturists' viewpoint
according to what and how much 1t eats. This
is plain tale of the birds bill of fare. It is
lucky, perhaps. for the songsters, as well for
the tuneless ones. that the birds of the best
habits of life well known by sight to all
Americans. The trouble that the bird protectors
have found lies almost wholly In the fact that
the habits Of birds not well known
the birds themselves.
1t was DIR. A. X. Fisher of the Biological Sur
vey who named the ten most useful birds He
is in charge of economic Investigations" In the
Bureau of the Biological Survey of the Depart
ment Of Agriculture. In the bureau kept
the bird records. The papers in the pigeon holes
in part read like the catalogues of a seed store
and the collection lists of entomologist One
can say of the birds that seeds and insects form
the chief of their diet"
To go to the mammals for a figure of speech
1t has taken years of closest work and field work
to separate the sheep from the goats. In the
bird world there are many more sheep than there
goats, but the job of separation has been
hard In the little flock Of best friends of the
farmer there only two birds which. perhaps
not well known to all suburban dweers. The
two are the killdeer plover and the yellow-billed
cuckoo. The nighthawk. which heads the list
is, or ought to be- known to everybody. OF course
1t is not hawk at all, and the name by which
Is known in the North ern states, has hurt it.
Paraphrasing it might be said. Give bird
bad name and it will shoot it." In the Southern
states the nghthawk is known as the bulLbat.
In the fall and winter It is killed ruthlessly and
TO no purpose exCcnt that of so-caled sport for
II is useless, or virtually useless food.
Nighthawks wholly nsectivorous. They do
damage to crops. F. e. l.. Beal, who has
made field studies for the Biological Survey of
the dietary of virtually all the commoner birds,
says of the food of the nighthawk, True bugs.
moths, flies, grasshoppers and crickets are i'm
portant elements of its food. Several species of
mosquitoes including the transmitter of malaria.
are eaten. Other welknown pests consumed
by the nighthawk Colorado potato beetles.
cucumber beetles. rice. clover-leaf and cotton
boil weevils. bill bugs, bark beetles, squash bugs
and moths of the cotton worm
The killdeer plover is of the noisy birds.
part of its Latin name is "vociferus." which
speaks for itself. While the killdeer ordinarily
is accounted a game bird It is poor eating. The
good that it does should 1t from persecu-
tion, but gunners not apt to discriminate.
and so the killdeer frequently suffers. This bird
lives in the open country More than 80 per
cent of its food consists of animal matter. The
record shows Beetles, 37.06 per cent; other in
sects grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants. bugs,
caddis flies. dragon flies and two-winged files,
1854 per cent, and other invertebrates as cent?
pedes. spiders, ticks, oyster worms, earthworms,
anails crabs and other crustacea 21.12 per cent.
Vegetable matter composes 22S per cent OF the
total food, and is chiefly made up of weedseeds,
such as buttonweed, smartweed foxtail grass and
hightshade The alfalfa weevil, a new and de-