The Bottineau courant. (Bottineau, Bottineau County, N.D.) 1895-1929, 1921-12-29
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make an average OF Almost three TO
the pellet, and probably to the meal. In 52 pei
lets collected in California there were found skulls
and other traces Of 261 pocket gophers. "A field
mice, 1874 pocket mice, IA deer mice, 80 harvest
mice, 23O kangaroo rats, and 215 house mice. These
items make it clear that the barn owl is constantly
doing work Of great value to agriculture. It's serv-
ices are typical Of those Of hawks and owls in gen.
eral. Owls as a group have long been prosecuted
by man, but never has persecution been more I'm.
just. The hawks and owls are not the only suffer-
ers, however, for when their numbers are greatly
reduced in any community, farmers will be forcibly
reminded Of the fact by a great Increase In the
number of destructive rodents.
Among the most praiseworthy birds are the
cuckoos. The most widely distributed species, the
yellow-billed and black-billed cuckoos, usually keep
out of sight, but are well known by their strange
notes, which have earned them the name "rain
crow" The cuckoos feed very largely on caterpil-
lars, and subsist to a larger extent than most of
our birds on the hairy and spiny kinds. One stom-
ach contained $50 tent caterpillars and another
PIT fall web-worms. The cuckoos are fond also
Of grasshoppers, sawfy larvae, plant bugs, and
other injurious insects.
The large and important woodpecker family in.
cludes "a species in the United States, most of
them highly beneficial. They are the chief de-
tenders Of trees against insect attack, most of
them being specialized to feed upon wood-boring
larvae, pests preyed upon by few other birds. From
10 to 80 per cent of the annual diet of various
species Is made up of ants, which are almost uni
formly injurious. The fickers, or "yellow-ham-
mers," especially are assiduous destroyers of ants,
one of these birds being known to have taken more
than 5000 at a single meal.
A group of birds, which, though diverse in ap-
pearance, are related in essential characters, in
cludes the huck-wilr s-widows, whippoor-wills,
poor-wills, nighthawks, swifts and humming birds.
All are almost strictly insect eaters and conse-
quentiy beneficial. The larger ones feed extensive
ly upon leaf-chafers, the larvae of which, including
the well-knoWn white grubs, are very destructive.
The nighthaWks take considerable of the same sort
of, food, but, in common with the swifts, capture
a great variety of small insects, more than so diff
ferent kinds having been found in single stomachs.
represented in some cases by thousands of individ-
ualS.
One Of our families of birds gets it's popular
name "fycatcher' from the insect-eating nature
of it's species, 81 of which live in the United States,
including such birds as the spectacular scissor-tail,
the bold, dashing kingbird, and the more quiet and
domestic phoebe. On the average, 50 per cent of
the food of these birds has been found to consist
of insects. The rose-chafer, a species not only de-
structive to vegetation, but known to be poisonous
to chickens and pheasants, is freely eaten by the
kingbird. Several fycatchers have the reputation
of eating hive bees to an injurious extent, but it
has been shown that they take mostly drones, and
furthermore, that they eat enough enemies of bees,
as robberflies, to pay for all the domestic bees they
take.
The jays, crows and ravens have always been
severely criticized, AMI it must be admitted that
on the whole the criticism is justified. About the
best that can be said for birds of this family, is
that on the average they do about as much good
as harm. 1t would seem a good policy to accord
them the same treatment long given the common
crow-the crow is not especially prosecuted,
neither is it protected. Thus while the birds are
allowed to exist in reasonable numbers for the sake
of the good they do, the way is left open for az
gressive. measures against them when necessary.
In the case Of this family, as, of all destructive
birds, damage is the result of overabund dance.
The damage done by the blackbirds is conspic-
uously the result Of over-population. The damage
sometimes is serious, and protection of these spe-
cies Is not recommended. In the same family with
the blackbirds, however, are such birds as orioles
and meadowlarks, and these do much more good
than harm.
The great sparrow family, comprising almost a