The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1917-01-31
American People Are Giving Feath'
cred Friends Plenty Of Thought
These Days, Experts
Discover.
ARE HELP TO FARMERS
Even Much MalIgned English Spar
row 10 Found to DO Useful
In 6obbIlng UP
Bugs.

There seems never to have been q
time when Americans as a people
were giving so much thought to birds
as now. The Washington Star says:
The sentimental virtues of birds and
their economic uses are being written
OF frequently and extensively by pro
fessional and amateur biologists and
ornithologfsts, and even a vast mum
Der Of bird observers OF perhaps linn
tied professional or technical attain
ments in this department OF science
are writing and talking at length In
behalf of the birds.
The discussion Of the economic val
ues of birds is one of the questions OF
serious Importance to the whole coun'
try 1t has been pointed out by stu
dents of this subject that tree swal-
lows stomach recently examined con-
tanned forty chinchbugs and frag-
ments of many others, besides ten 9th.
er species OF insects. The stomach OF
a bank swallow showed that it con
tanned sixty-eiEht cotton boil weeviis,
one of the very dangerous and destruc'
tive insect pests Of the United States.
Thirty-five cliff swallows had eaten
an average of eighteen boil weevils
each. Two stomachs Of pine siskins
from California contained nineteen
black olive scales and three hundred
plant lice. The stomach Of kildeer
taken In Texas contained more than
800 larvae. A flicker's stomach held
twenty-eight big grubs. A night
hawks stomach contained thirty-four
May beetles, the adult form OF the
white grub. A New York night hawk
had eaten twenty-four clover-leaf wee
wills and 357 ants, and another night
hawk, $40 gfasshoppers. f1fty-two
bugs, three beetles, two wasps and q
spider. A ,,big-tailed grackle. taken in
Texas, had eaten in one meal about
one hundred cotton boil weev!ls, be
sides other insects. A ring-neck
pheasant, a bird which the state OF
New York is taking great interest In
propagating, showed upon exam1na
ton OF the crop that it contained 8,
600 seeds OF chickenwood and a dande
lion head More than 10000 seeds
have been found in single DUCKS
stomach, taken in Louisiana.
The Investigations by the Unitee
States biological survey and the bio
logical and agricultural bureaus OF the
various states leave no room for doubt
that birds play an important relation
to agricultural interests, though there
often seems tendency to dwell on the
harm that even a much desp1sed Eng
lish sparrow has its part to perform
in protecting tie agricultural interests
OF the United States, and the bureau
of the biological survey has given a
great deal Of attention to this much
abused bird. 1t has collected them
from all parts of the United States
and made an examination of 1000
stomachs, the results showing that
during the colder half of the year the
food of these birds consists almost en-
tirely of seeds of weeds.
It has been estimated by entomolo'
gists that the annual loss caused In
the United States by insects Is $780,
OGO 900 and that were It not for birds
the loss would be much greater. Care
full students have said that without
the aid of our eeathered friends sue
cessful agriculture would be impos-
sible. The amount Of weed seeds dis
posed of by birds, in their depleted
numbers is impressive, and every
body knows that the problem OF weed
destruction is very important to agri-
cultural interests.