WyoMING Birpbs. ) 
all parts of the country. The eagles are also decreasing in 
numbers, probably because gunners are too likely to shoot 
when the opportunity comes. ‘These birds are also fre- 
quently caught in traps set for coyotes and other animals. 
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS. 
It is well known that birds are among the most important 
factors in checking the damage done by insects to agricul- 
tural crops. It is an established fact that insects became 
terrible pests in Australia shortly after the wholesale de- 
struction of the birds from eating poisoned grain intended 
for rabbits. Certain families of birds feed almost exclu- 
sively upon insects. Certain other families are efficient 
agents for destroying weed seeds. The Sparrows, Horned 
Larks, and Finches, and in fact all birds which have a 
short, thick, conical bill, are mainly seed eaters. 
THE AMOUNT OF FOOD CONSUMED BY BIRDS. 
One is likely to suppose that the birds can not be of any 
great economic importance because they are small and in- 
significant in appearance. Before deciding upon this point 
it might be well to consider that they occur in enormous 
numbers and eat amounts altogether out of proportion to 
their size, when judged from our standards. Digestion 
goes on very rapidly in these warm-blooded, active animals, 
and so they eat almost constantly. In cases investigated, it 
has been shown that food passes entirely through the diges- 
tive tract in the course of an hour or an hour and a half. 
Birds frequently eat the equivalent of eight full meals per 
day and consume approximately their own weight of food. 
This is true more especially of young birds, which in 
a few cases investigated have been shown to swallow 
more than their own weight of food and increase from 
twenty to forty per cent in weight daily. Some one has 
