Evening star., 1917-03-04
ssoms i'm Wisdom and Efficiency From the Birds


Going back toward the house. he saw
an owl nailed to the barn door. He
ripped the mummif1ed body open with
his knife and the skulls of four mice
fell to the ground. While the owl
lived the orchard was safe. Then one
years before an owl had eaten an old
and feeble hen, worth 20 cents, be-
longing to his grandmother.
".All birds are useful" DR.. Fisher con-
tinued. but l wouldn't venture pub
licly to exalt one species much above
another and to ALLEVIATE winged friends
whom 1 esteem highly. 1 have no fault
to find even with the bald eagle, the
symbol of American freedom and cour-
age, although it eats rotten hsh and
instinctively is a robber."
You refuse. then. to mention the
most worthless members of the feath-
cred tribes that inhabit the United
States?" said the interviewer.
Il decline to particularize, except to
remark that the sharp-shinned hawk
eats wild birds and young poultry and
that Cooper's hawk lives mainly on
meadowlarks. robins and fiickers. and
pigeons. But to pick out the worst bird
is as impossible task as would be the
effort orally to segregate the worst
man in humanity as a mass
DO races Of birds make war on one
another"
bilious. Their quarrels are personal.
and originate over food. but, in mating
time. love may impel one knight to test
the quality and armor of another. Great
armies of birds. however. do not meet
on the battlefield purposely to slaugh-
ter one another"
Are there any paupers or beggars
among them?"
None. Birds work. Being industri-
Gus, thrifty and sober, they are not dis
tuTbeO "
social problems. They build their own
houses and support themselves. depend
ing neither on their parents nor their
friends for help No legislatures are
listening to hear their wrongs. Birds
do not tax themselves to feed. clothe
and shelter loafers. criminals and buns
Furthermore. there are no leading citi-
zens to be envfed. emulated and
abused"
How about the cowbird?" the inter-
viewer asked
Il have thought all along" DR.. Fisher
replied, that you would drag him into
our dialogue at the first opportunity.
Why does the female cowbird lay her
eggs in the nest of some other bird and
thus shirk her plain motherly respon-
sibilities? You don't know? Your ig-
norance is not unexpected. The cow
bird. because Of her Unsuitable appetite
Tor insects. can't spare the time requir-
ed for the Matching of her brood She
is hunting and eating constantly, and
man profits by her voracity and labor"
x
You believe. seemingly. that the world
would be eaten up by insects were 1t not
for the birds? the interviewer observed
No man loves birds more than l do"
DIR. Fisher answered, but overpraise will
hurt them. just as 1t hurts ones human
friend or nations political or military
: hero. Birds eat insects. but natures bal
ance would be maintained if birds We're
non-existent Nature, so long as it is not
muddled by man, can take care of itself.
An abnormally wet summer kills myriads
of insects. So does an abnormally dry
summer. Animals eat them. Bacteria de-
stroy them by the billion. A severely cold
winter freezes them to death.
THE pine-bark beetle causes more loss
in our forests than do fires. This beetle
once threatened all of the pine trees on
the Appalachian mountains from the Gulf
of st Lawrence to Alabama but the tenn
perature dropped six or eight degrees be-
low the resisting point of the beetle ana
he perished to such an extent that he
became only normally harmful
Nature preserves itself If let alone.
Man thrusts himself into its harmony ard
trouble ensues. He killed off the buffalo
Fifty thousand of those fine animals were
butchered for their tongues. The
tongues netted the hunters 61a cents
apiece.
THE wolf and the coyote kept the
elk in check. arranged in nature 8
plan. Man. having amost caused the
extinction of the elk, the wolf and the
coyote turned to cattle. and ranch own
ers are paying the bill. Do you see the
skull in that case against the wall ?
1t is the skull of wolf that killed
$4,000 worth of cows and steers.
Man bungles; nature never does
There is a swamp in Jefferson county,
N. Y. 1t Is full of life-snakes, turtles
skupks and so on. / knew that swamp
and its history for fifty years. Snap
ping turtles laid their eggs in the sand
of an old beach that was once the
shore of lake. Skunks dug out many
or the eggs ard re +hnn' r'hen sEunh
III. l. ss-s - T., eli, -. l4.t t.,i a,i1