Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-12-13
JAW PROTECTS MOST
 BIRDS IN THE J. s.

' law" said JoeProchaska, state game warden. before the Alhambra church. "Wander where you will through ev- cry province and every nook and cor ner of the United States you will find that the lawmaker has been there be- fore you, and thrown over the birds the sheltering arm of prohibitory stat utes," he said. "It is clear, therefore, that our lawmakers regard the wild bird life as great value to the coun- try from the standpoint of dollars and cents.
 Destruction of Insects.
 "If we go back few years and ex- anime certain widely read publications issued by the United States depart ment of agriculture, we can under stand more fully why our legislative bodies have regarded so seriously the subject of bird protection. In one of the Year books of the departments we read the annual loss to the cotton crop of the United States by insects amounts to $6O,OOO,OO0. We learn, too, that grasshoppers and other insects annually destroy $53,OOO,OOO worth of hay and $2,OOO,OOO worth of cereals are each year eaten by our insect pop ulation. In fact, we are told that one tenth of all the cereals, hay, cotton, tobacco, forests, and general farm pro- ducts is the yearly tax which insects levy and collect. In some parts of the country market gardening and fruit growing are the chief industries of the people. Now, when vegetable rais- CT or fruit grower starts to count up the cost of his crops, one of the items which he must take into consideration is the 25 per cent of his products, which goes to feed the insects of the surrounding country.
 "Every year the apple raisers of the United States expend eight and one quarter million dollars in spraying, to discourage the activities of these pests. In considering the troubles of the apple growers we may go even further and count the $12,OOO,OOO worth of fruit destroyed by the insects despite all the spraying which has talk en place. Chinch bugs destroy wheat to the value of $12,000,000 a year and the cotton boil weevil costs the south ern planters alone $22,OO0,OO0 per year.
 Useful Birds.
 "Most people who have made the ac- quaintance of our common birds know the friendly little Chickadee, which winter and summer is a constant res ident of the deciduous trees. It feeds, among other things, on borers living in the bark of trees, on plant lice which suck the sap, on caterpillars which consume the leaves, and on cob ling worms which destroy fruit. One naturalist found that four Chickadees had eaten 105 female canker worms moths. With scalpel, tweezers, and these moths were exam ined and each was found to contain on an average of 1855 eggs. This gives a total of nearly 10000 cankeral moth eggs destroyed by four birds in few minutes. The chickadees is very fond of eggs of this moth and hunts them assiduously during the four weeks of the summer when the moths are lay ing them.
 "The nighthawk, which feeds main ly in the evening and which is equally at home in the pine barrens of Florida, the prairies of Dakota or the upper air of Arizona destroyes insects of many kinds. A government agent col lected one in the stomach of which were the remains of 34 May beetles, the larvae of which are the white grubs we'll known to farmers on ac- count of their destruction of potatoes and other vegetables. Several stom- achs have been found to contain 50 or more different kinds of insects and the number of individuals in some cas- es run into the thousands. Night hawks also eat grasshoppers, potato beetles, cucumber beetles, boil weevils, leafhoppers and numerous grants and mosquitoes. Surely this splendid rep resentative of the goat sucker family deserves the gratitude of all American citizens.
 Tent Caterpillar.
 Among the branches of certain If our fruit trees we sometimes see large webs which have been made by the tent caterpillars, and invading hosts seem to have pitched it's tents among the bows on all sides. If undisturbed these caterpillars strip the foliage from the trees. Fortunately there is a bird which is very fond of these hairy intruders. This is the cuckoo, and he eats so many that his stomach actually becomes lined with a thick coating of hair from their woolv bodies. The Arizona Oriole also is fond of rifling these webs. Another we'll know nbird that helps to make this part of the world habitable is the flicker. It is popular in every neigh borhood where it is found and is known by wide variety of local