216 The Ottawa Naturalist. [Mar. 



powerful insecticides which we have. Reference has already 

 been made to the change in the balance of Nature which man 

 makes by interfering with the pre-existing natural con- 

 ditions through ' the cultivation of the soil and its 

 products, and this disturbance has a serious effect on bird life by 

 changing their environment. But more- serious than this is the 

 effect of the wantonness and inherent barbaric traits of man. 

 One of the most appalling facts in relation to Canadian agri- 

 culture and the enjoyment of the people is the wanton destruc- 

 tion of bird life, especially in the West. Small wonder that the 

 visitations of grasshoppers and of other insects proceed un- 

 controlled when the farmer has killed off his best friends. Is it 

 a matter for surprise that one of the most serious questions 

 affecting the farmer of Canada to-day is the increase in the 

 nutnber of weeds and their spread, when the greatest weed 

 destroyers are not only not encouraged and protected, but are 

 killed, because they have the misfortune to be living creatures 

 and so provide a target ? Legislation is not the only remedy to 

 seek; we must employ the greatest of weapons enlightenment 

 by education, and not rest until we make those who are dependent 

 upon the products of the land understand that they should treat 

 their bird friends as they would their human friends, and in this 

 way increase the pleasures of life and their allies in combatting 

 such foes as destructive insects, mammals and weeds. 



A few instances may be mentioned to illustrate the 

 unpaid and usually discouraged assistance of these friends of 

 ours. That large family of our native sparrows I do not refer 

 to the English sparrow, which does its best to drive away 

 most useful native birds, but to such birds as the tree sparrow, 

 the song sparrow, the junco and the dickcissel, etc. as weed 

 destroyers they are unrivalled. Dr. Judd, of the Biological 

 Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture, has 

 made a comprehensive study of the food of about twenty species 

 of sparrows, and has examined over 4,000 stomachs of the birds 

 at different periods of the year from different localities. As a 

 result it was found that weed seeds form more than half their 

 food for the entire year, and during the colder half of the year 

 these seeds constituted about four-fifths of the food of many 

 species. A single bird will often be found to have eaten 300 seeds 

 of pigeon grass, or 500 seeds of lamb's quarters or pigweed. As 

 they feed in flocks they are most efficient consumers of these and 

 other weeds. Beal estimated that the tree sparrow may consume 

 one-quarter ounce of weed seed per day, and, on that basis, in a 

 State the size of Iowa, this species would consume 800 tons of 

 seed annually. 



McAtee has given the results of an examination of the 



