The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1916-02-12
WHY 1T PAYS TO
PROTECT BIRDS

leum, wherein lie unknown to nearly
every passerIby 100000 bodies or
parts of them. Nothing in the eXter-
ior of this bright and clearly structure
at 1858 B street S. W. goes to sug-
gest the character of it's interesting
and, as We shall come to see, immense
ly important interior. Entering its
portals one finds himself not in a
morgue or museum but in the corri-
doris of a modern busy office building,
and he must know his business. if,
while reading on door panels the
names of departments and officials, he
is to discover the structures great
secret. Not a morgue. did | say, yet
it is, for the dead fragments are stom-
achs of birds. and they do await re-
cognition by those to whom they prov
ed friends, as the evidence they died
holding demonstrations beyond perad-
venture. Here sits line of trained
analysts peering through six and eight
power microscopes into the Footballs
before them-separating. classifying,
tabulating, reporting. 1t is the Bur-
eau of Biological Survey in the United
States Department of Agriculture,
which for 30 years, though most &C
lively for the latter half of that per-
iod, has been determining the food
habits. the distribution and migration
I North American birds, publishing
its findings as the basis for Intelligent
legislation, and reporting from year
to year the progress of enactments,
protective or destructive.
tune and onrs to have fourd tba voc
son for saving wild life which gets >,
hearing when humanitarism consider
atoms fail II ;e MISUNDERSTANDING int
birds nav in dollars and cents W.
have been thinkirp of them penerallv
as either rIaesant to eae ar bear ~.
good TO eat These are but hannv ac-
cidents, IF indeed TO enrich our aes.
thetic nature and stock the larder were
their on1v service thew would deserve
our full protection, But their real
function in nature is to keen in check
the hordes of insects rodents and
weeds to act as scavengers and so to
render the earth habitable nv rs In
truth Henry w Henshaw Chief of
the BIOLOGICAL SURVEY pives II as hi,
conclusion that without insectivorols
birds "it is more than likelv-nav Il
is almost certain-that within limit
ed time NOT only would successful ap-
riculture jccome imnossihlo hnt The
destruction of the greater part of
vegetation would follow" (Nat Geop
Mag 1908 u 89(. MISSING tha MONT
of their existence we have allowed
Ignorance and greed TO visit them with
STUPID and relentless nersecution
To test the effect of birds at work,
let us take what is regarded popularity
as a hard case-that of hawks and
owls, against which the hand of man
is raised DR.. A. X. Fisher has writ
ten a monograph of 200 pages giving
the detailed analysis of 269O stom
achs of these birds taken at all sea-
sons and from every section. The re-
suit Is that poultry and game thieving
is found to be practically confined 10
6 out of % species and sub-species OF
these SIX. three are so extremely rare
ligible This leaves the Sharp-shinne4
hawk, Cooper's hawk and great horn
ed owl only to be shot. In 2212 stom-
achs of the other 81, poultry and gam
birds are found in only 81 per cent
other birds in II per cent. while IS "a
per cent contained mice and other
noXious mammals. and y per cent.
insects.
Oddly and cruelty enough the two
species commonly called Hen and
Chicken Hawks 4 e., Red-shouldere,I
and Red-tailed iawksl prove to he
about as innocent as Fido ard i'm
mensely more useful. OF POS stonI-
achs of the former, poultry was founj
in three fish in three birds in -
while the other 1873 we're filled with
mice and other mammals rentiles,
batrachians. insects. spiders crawfisn
earthworms and offal,
Sparrow hawks. Ike MANY others
prefer transformers. In 32O stom.
achs NOT q trace Of poultrv was founI
though 2l5 had eaten insects and 81
han captured mice. II is estimated
that an ordinary flock of Swainson's
hawks consumes 1000 900 grasshop-
per, a month
Owls at night are even more effec-