Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-02
HASKIN LETTER
COUNTING THE BIRDS
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

There may be only three or four OF them
in 4O-acre tract of timber, but they 80
over every creyice in the bark of all the
trees, picking out insects and their eggs.
That forest could not live without them.
Nor could it live without the larger
woodpeckers that perform the major op-
eratiOns on the trees, as surgeon WORKS
on a human body, uncovering with their
sharp bills boring insects that have pene-
trated far into the vitals of the trees.
Some of these woodpeckers, 1t is true,
injure trees, but most OF them merely dlg
out deadly insect pests. while the holes
in which they have their nests are nearly
always drilled in dead trees.
Among the branches Of the trees are
thrushes and vireos and warblers,. who
are hunting for the insects that infest
the leaves and twigs.
Go on to the grain fields and you will
find coyey Of bob-whites systematically
patrolling them for the insects that blight
and devour the grain. Meadowlarks are
at work there, too, and numerous other
species help to some extent. In the or
chard. in the vegetable garden, it is the
same. The cat-brd, robin and mocking
bird are hard at work doing what. would
otherwise cost much in money and human
labor. And swallows are patrolling the
air. catching flies and mosquitoes and
midges and gnats. When the sun sets
and the swallows go to roost. the whip
poor-wills, after singing their evening
song, take the work up where the swal
lows left off.
It is literally true that but for this
restless activity of the birds we could not
exist And it is therefore important to
know how many birds we have, and why
there are not more. The counts SO far
taken indicate that there is. on an aver
age, one pair Of nesting birds to the acre
on eastern American farm lands. But
they also show that where birds have
been properly protected and encouraged,
there are three and even four pairs to
the acre. In word we have only about
a third as many birds as we might have.
And there is little doubt but what if we
had three times as many birds we would
have great deal more to eat and wear
and use.
OF course, birds do damage here and
there. No one, except few sentImen.
talists, wants all the birds protected all
the time. 1t is intelligent control of ma
lection is no better than indiscriminate
destruction. If the red birds are devour-.
ing rice crops in South Carolina and
| Georgia they must be shot. When great
flocks of wild geese settle on the sprout-
ing fields in California and nip the crops
off close to the ground, the farmers
| sometimes have to hire regiments of
men to shoot at them, and special per-
mits to kill them in the closed season are
issued by the government.
Nor is there any harm in killing part
| of the natural increase of game hlrds:
| Nature intended that these birds should
| furnish food for other animals. We have
| killed off many of the natural enemies of
the quail for example. and it is right that
we should gather crop of quail every
! year.
| But the trouble is that we overdo the
/ killing business And our attitude to-
ward nature is ignorant. and ignorance
never led to intelligent control Of any
| thing. The bird census is therefore an
| important undertaking. both as survey
| of a valuable natural resource and by
| reason Of the interest it arouses IN our
/ indispensable allies against the insects.