Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-01-31
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

| gathering in unwary insect enemies.
Some Of these guards fly with mouths
open so as not to have to pause for
refreshments.
The police record" of some species
has been cleared UP by later inveStiga-
ton. For example, the kingbird had
been accused of destroying bees, but
now it is known that about all the bees
he swallows are drones. while he preys
on robber flies and bee-killers. It is
to get those enemies Of bees that he
hovers around beehives, not for the
| bees themselves.
The warblers and vireos clean the
| leaves of trees of their insect pests, as
do many others, including the thrushes,
bluebirds, robins, tanagers, orioles, cat
| birds, cuckoos and mockingbirdS. It
takes 400 eggs Of the apple plant louise
| to feed one chickadee one day. The
sapsucker and the woodpecker pay their
board by eating grasshoppers, ants,
wasps, bugs ard flies.
The annual loss to farmers caused
by chinch bugs Is estimated by DR.. L.
| 0. Howard. entomologist, at not less
than $4,000. 900, but it would be many
! times that If 1t were not that chinch
bugs are the favorite meat of sparrows,
blackbirds, robins and many other birds.
Birds not only help mankind by fight
Ing insectivorolis pests, but also by. de-
vouring the seeds of noxious weeds, for
they prefer wild weeds to cultivated
plants.
| The migrations of birds are familiar.
The travellers pass from regions far to
the north even to corresponding local
tiles south Of the Equator. and In flying
they are on the lookout for safe land
ings where they may rest and feed.
| 1t Is astonishing to note how quickly
the news spreads among them concern
ing a safe refuge. Last August we had
an unusually heavy rainStorm which
| inundated the excavation made for the
new Department of Commerce Build
ing, and within few hours there were
in that pool. in the heart Of the City
Of Washington II varieties of shore
birds. which had heard the news while
loafing upon the Atlantic beach. The
birds hoped to find food in the new
pool, but were disappointed until the
water had stood week, when weed
seeds sprouted. There were SO kildeer
plover in the pool at one time.
DR.. Bartsch advocates creating a
nice, neat mud puddle beside the
Speedway. which would induce hundreds
Of wild ducks en- route to the South to
take a rest and mud bath where we
could enjoy their presence. The mud
would be an additional hazard for golf
players thereby killing two birds with
one puddle. Without 1t, there are
only few ducks in Rock Greek Park
and along the Potomac, so life In Wash
ington is unnecessarily monotonous and
uninteresting.
Nevertheless. the District of Columbia
/ HAVNf0tNG in
300 species of birds, which number
constitutes a quarter of the kind of
birds found In all America. All of Cuba
has only 275 species.
NO foreign bird Is admitted without
, pernlt issued by DR.. Palmer of the
Biological Survey based on national
origins" and condition Of health. The
law Is as strict as that of human i'm
migration restriction.
~
Beginning in 1920, the Biological
Survey OF the Department of Agricul-
ture mas been doing systematic re-
search by catching and banding birds
, and turning them loose after record
ling the bands A total Of 100000 birds
have been so marked.
In the first three years only 1,746
banded birds were reported from differ
ent parts of the world where they had
been trapped or killed, thus giving
definite data as to their habits Of mi
grafton. Since 1928, l0,33S such re-
turns have come in.
Similar banding is being done also In
Europe, and some OF marked European
birds have been caught In the
Western Hemisphere. An American
tern, banded at Eastern Egg Rock, Me-,
July 8, 1918. was found at the mouth of
the Niger River, British West Africa, in
August, 1917-certainly a remarkable
case Of four years Of globe trotting'
or flying.
! The practice of Handing birds will en-
able the oynjtholo0ists to study many