The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-05-21
CONSERVATION OF BIRDS
BY JAMES ROLLINS.

Birds are the most useful living
thing man knows Of Their cheory
songs, bright plumage and great help
In killing insccts and rodent pests
have made them invaluable to man.
IL is said that, IL all birds were
killed off, man would speedily fol-
low. In times OF depression, n
cheery song or bright flash OF
color Will do much towards tighten
ing mans burden.
To the farmer he is a mort pow
erful ally, always working, always
CHEEKY. when tho ncstllngs come, |
then the adult birds must work twice |
as hard. and thereby help the farm
ers more. The bluobird feeds It's |
nestlings ID times an hour. leaving
about four minutes between each
feeding. The chickadec feeds It's
nestlings 21 times an hour. leaving
space OF three minutes between
each feeding. One man found,
after watching nest OF young birds
for four days, that the second day
he saw them they had doubled In
weight. the third day they had
tripled. and the fourth day they had
quadrupled. This means that tho
farmer profits greatly by tho young.
while many farmers foolishly kill
the young. Even the one who Is
painted the blacklist. the crow. was
found to have done twice as much
good ns II had done harm.
Nature has divided the appetites
of the birds so that all green things
are taken care of. The flycatchcrs
and swallows take care of the air
in the day lime, to give way at night
to the nighthawks. whippoorwills and
will's-widows. The night
hawks get all the mosquitoes and
xtst,, ha
at night. while the others get IN,
flies and day time insects. The
thrushes. robins, bluebirds and 9th.
ers take care of the crops and foil
age. The warblers fit back and
forth snatching a rasty meal here
and there. After a warbler has
passed a greenle. or vireo viii come
and make a square meal out OF what
the warbler could find nothing. one
cuckoo was found to have eaten
217 fall web-worms and it's stomach
was as thickly coated with theft
hairs as a gentleman's beaver hat
Many caterpillars and insects protect
themselves with hairs, which many
birds VIII not touch. but a cuckoo
or an oriole will consider himself
lucky TO come into neighborhood
infested with them, when the gypsy,
moth became "A plague, he found q
slim black bird to he a very power
ful enemy and ally of the farmer
This bird was the black bill let
cuckoo. The farmer would find tn,
pupae and larvae of the gypsy mott
scattered around wherever th,
gypsy moth had been bad.
Next comes the bark, which is II
the care of the woodpccker, flickers
chicadees, sap-suckers and nu
;hatehes. Chicadees will eat at
single meal, 400 eggs OF the appl
plant lousc, and in the winter It viii
eat an immense number of cankcr
worm eggs. The woodpeCker. flick
ers. creepers and sapsuckers TAX
care of the trunk and large limb
OF the tree, while the nutha.ches
kinglets and chicadees take care O
the smaller branches and twigs.
The weeds are taken care OF b
tho family fringilldae (sparrowi
finches, etc, which includes a Ion
line of sub-familes making al
most a 1000 species. Certain garde
weeds produce as many as 100, 90
seeds in a season, and, II uncheckec
would produce 10000. 100000 plans
Think, IL these weeds were LEI
alone. the world would soon be over
run with them, Even the despise
English sparrows do great good n
weed destroyers. almost enough [
tip the scales of Justice in .hei
favor. In the autumn they com
sweeping down In noisy flocks. an,
eat thousands of seeds of crab -gras =,
dandelions, plantain and other up
starts Of 'he turf The little blac
and yellow goldfinch is an unequa le,
destroyer of weeds and is offer
called the thistlebird. The sparrow
that leave In the autumn are re
placed by iuncos. w-flakes, long
spurs, redpo!ls. Srosbeaks and sis
kins, who do much towrad riddin
us of our weed pests. tree spar
row VIII cat 100 seeds of pigeo
grass al single meal, and snow
flake was observed one Februar
morning 10 have picked up NOR
than 100 seeds OF pigeon-wecd 10
breakfast.
4 certain well-to-do y, -ch grove
IN Georgia discovered way to ri