The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1916-06-03

IM barn swallow purple martin and chip
NoSS0 Having given the names of the ten
birds over whose good deeds should
rejoice the ornithologist said, But the list is
longer. There are other birds and many of
them, that work as hard or nearly as hard for
man those which I have named. Between
80 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 little,
for he said that there 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
others have been given their credit marks, but
1t is to be doubted, perhaps If anything which
can be said in behalf of predatory which
occasionally picks up a chicken will to
save its life when it is caught the act of lar
ceny- Not one Of the birds in the Table of Ten
is thief Honest, wellmeaning, cheerful, and
Tor the most part neighbOrly, they go through
their lives working, which 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 it is given, but it is not
likely that anyone who has watched the daily
operations 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 bad from the agriculturists' viewpoint
according to what and how much it eats. This
is plain tale of the birds bill of fare 1t is
lucky, perhaps, for the songsters, well 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 not as well known as
the birds themselves
It was Dr. A. K 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 entomologfst. One
say of the birds that seeds and insects form
the chief of their diet"
To go to the mammals for a figure of speech
it 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
hard. In the little flock of best friends of the
farmer there only two birds which, perhaps,
are not well known to all suburban jewellers. The
two the killdeer plover and the yelIow-billed
| cuckoo The nighthawk, which heads the list,
| is ought to be, known to everybody. OF course
| it is not hawk at all, and the by which
it is known in the North ern states. has hurt it.
Paraphrasing it might be said. "Give a bird a
bad name and it will shoe it." In the Southern
states the nighthawk is known the bu1Lbat.
In the fall and winter it is killed ruthIessly and
| to purpose except that of so-called sport, for
it is useless, or virtually useless food.
Nighthawks wholly insectivorous 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 nighthawk, True bugs,
| moths flies, grasshoppers and crickets i'm
portant elements of its food Several species of
mosquitoes, including the transmitter of malaria.
are eaten. Other well-known pests consumed
| by the nighthawk Colorado potato beetles,
| cucumber beetles. rice, cloyer-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.
| A 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 it from persecu-
ton but gunners are not apt to discriminate.
and SO the kiTdeer frequently suffers. This bird
lives in the open country. More than 90 per
cent of its food consists of animal matter. The
record shows: Beetles 37.06 per cent; other in
sects, as grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, bugs.
eaddis aies dragon flies and two-winged flies,
1884 per cent, and other invertebrates cent?
pedes, spiders, ticks, oyster worms, earthworms,
snails, crabs and other crustacea, Pip per cent
Vegetable matter conposes FPS per cent OF the
total food and is chiefly made up of weedseeds,
such as buttonweed, smartweed, foxtan grass and
| nightshade The alfalfa weevil. and de