378 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



leisure for recreation in the out-of- 

 doors. 



There is extravagance and waste in resources of the nation. True conser- 

 human energy as lamentable and de- vation goes further and deeper. 



the stoppage of waste and extrava- 

 gance in the utitlizing of undeveloped 



structive as the extravagance and 

 waste- which has denuded our forests, 

 exhausted our soil, diminished our 



GOVERNOR DIX SAYS THIS IS •'THE WAY 



TO REAR WELL PRESERVED OCTO- 



GENARIANS." 



hydraulic energy, and inflicted incal- 

 culable loss upon the nation. The 

 prosperity of the state depends upon 

 the rational conservation of the en- 

 ergies of its citizens as much as upon 

 the conservation of its natural re- 

 sources. In the national sense, con- 

 servation has a far larger meaning than 



means intelligent, orderly, and efficient 

 use of all of the faculties of men as 

 applied to the solution of national 

 problems, and the promotion of social 

 progress and general happiness. — From 

 The Survey. 



A Good Word for Starlings. 



New York. 

 To the Editor : 



I wish to use this opportunity, of 

 stating a word in defence of the much- 

 abused starling. On my place, I have 

 a great many starlings, nesting every 

 summer and as I read so much about 

 the destructiveness of the starling, 1 

 took special occasion to observe these 

 birds by the hour. I have never been 

 able to find any fault with them what- 

 ever. When they had young in their 

 nest, they were bringing incessantly, 

 grasshoppers, butterflies and caterpil- 

 lars and other insects to their nest, for 

 the young. I have sat within six feet 

 of their nests for two hours at a time, 

 and made notations, and I have never 

 seen them one single time, bring any- 

 thing else but insects. I have a 

 great deal of fruits on my place, 

 cherries, raspberries, grapes and straw- 

 berries etc. Though there were 

 hundreds of starlings on the place, I 

 have very rarely seen a starling in the 

 cherry trees. The robin however, I 

 find is an extremely bad offender, so 

 is the black-bird or crackle. The robin 

 not only feeds on cherries, but he de- 

 stroys twenty times as much as he eats. 

 He makes vigorous onslaughts on 

 strawberries and pulls out the young 

 sprouts of peas and sweet-corn, row 

 after row. Neighbors of mine told me 

 their grapes were being destroyed by 

 starlings. I noticed that my own 

 grapes were apparently being attacked 

 by some enemy and after careful 

 watching, I decided that not birds but 

 insects were eating the grapes. Three 

 or four different species of wasps were 

 incessantly at the grapes, cutting them 

 open and destroying a great many 



