Greene County herald. (Leakesville, Miss.) 1898-current, 1916-06-02

IN EMINENT A merican ornithologist re-
~ Gently was asked to name the ten most
beneficial birds OF the United States
" Here Is his answer: Nighthawk kill
" 4 deer plover. chimney swift, bluebird
~ downy woodpecker. phoebe, chickadee
RM barn swallow. purple martin and chip
MM ping sparrow.
Having given the names of the ten
birds over whose good deeds man should
rejoice the ornithologist said, But the list is
longer There are other birds and many Of
them, that work hard or nearly as hard for
man as those which | have named Between
80 and 40 species there Is small room for choice,
out let the ten stand because the list perhaps
cannot be improved upon"
Later the scientist wanted to hedge little
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
olrds OF prey however. has been pleaded before.
Inc barn owl, the sparrow hawk and some
others have been given their credit marks, but
II Is to be doubted, perhaps. II anything which
can be said in behalf of predatory one which
occasionally picks up a 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, well-meaning cheerful, and
for the most part neighborly, they 20 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 &C.
curacy OF the list as 1t is given. but it 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 We shall know them A bird
Is good or bad from the agriculturlsts' viewpoint
according to what and how much 1t eats This
Is plain tale of the birds bill of fare 1t is
lucky. perhaps, for the songsters, as we'll as 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 are not as we'll known as
the birds themselves.
1t was Dr. 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 are kept
the bird records The papers in the pigeon holes
in part read like the catalogues Of seed store
and the collection lists of an entomoogist One
can say Of the birds that seeds and insects form
the chief of their diet"
TO go to the mammals for 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
are goats, but the Job of separation has been
farmer there are only two birds which, perhaps
are not well known to all suburban dwellers. The
two are the kiIldeer plover and the yellow-biIled
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
1t is known In the North ern states has hurt It.
Paraphrasing it might be said Give bird a
bad name and 1t will shoot it," In the Southern
states the nighthawk is known as the bull-ba
In the fall and winter 1t is killed ruthlessly and
to no purpose except that of so-called sport, for
IT is useless. or virtually useless as food
Nighthawks wholly insectvorous They do
no 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 nghthawk. True bugs.
moths flies, grasshoppers and crickets are Inn
portant elements of its food. Several species of
mosquitoes. including the transmitter OF malaria
are eaten. Other well-known pests consumed
by the nighthawk are Colorado potato beetles.
cucumber beetles, rice cloverleaf and cotton
boil weevils, bill bugs, bark beetles squash bugs
and moths OF the cotton worm"
The killdeer plover is one OF the noisy birds
A part of its Latin name is "vociferus" which
speaks for itself. While the killdeer ordinarily
is accounted game bird 1t Is poor eating. The
good that 1t does should save It from persecu-
tion, but gunners are 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 3706 per cent; other In
sects, as grasshoppers caterpillars. ants bugs,
caddis flies. dragon flies and two-winged flies,
1884 per cent, and other invertebrates as cent?
pedes spiders, ticks. oyster worms, earthworms,
snails. crabs and other crustacea, 2I12 per cent
Vegetable matter composes 3.2s per cent of the
total food, and is chiefly made up of weedseeds
such as buttonweed. smartweed. foxtail grass and
nightshade. The alfalfa weevil. a new and de-