116 STATE HOKTICULTUIiAL SOCIETY. 



spoken of among men. And so everything about these light, airy creatures, 

 that hardly deign to touch our earth with the tips of their toes, becomes of 

 interest to us. 



But the objects of this society are practical and economical, and we must pass 

 by the merely interesting, to subjects that have more immediate connection with 

 the material welfare of man. A species of birds, to be of practical value to the 

 farmer and fruit raiser, must possess the four following characteristics : First, 

 they must be abundant; a pair of cuckoos in the wood-lot, or a single pewee 

 with its nest under the shed, may do their best, but they will make no 

 impression upon the sea of insect life. Second, they must live upon our insect 

 enemies. The snipe, probing for worms among the bogs, or the kingfisher 

 rattling along over the mill-pond, will be but little help in our time of trouble. 

 Third, they must bear man's presence. The woodthrush and the oven bird, 

 skulking in the deep woodland, will do nothing for us in a direct way ; and 

 fourth, they must stay with us for some considerable time. Those birds which 

 nest in the far north and winter in the south, may snap up a few insects on 

 their hurried way through our orchards and groves ; but they will be hardly 

 felt for good. 



Birds then must be abundant. They must be fearless of man's presence. 

 They must live on those insects which are directly injurious to man, and they 

 must stay a sufficient length of time to make their services of value. All of 

 these are subjects well worth the study of the naturalist and the agriculturist, 

 for they are all all-important in the utilitarian sense. A species which lacks 

 any one of these is useless. 



The food of birds has already received considerable attention, and we can know 

 within reasonable limits what help to expect from the different groups. But 

 it is not even all insectivorous birds which are useful. Some live upon insects 

 which are not injurious, and some even devote themselves to insects which are 

 carnivorous and thus destroy our friends. Others are only insectivorous at cer- 

 tain seasons, while at other times their taste for fruit or grain may more than 

 outweigh their good deeds. 



The subject of the relative abundance of the various species of birds has, as 

 yet, received no attention, in my knowledge ; but the most casual observer can- 

 not fail to see that some species are always more abundant than others, and 

 there can be no doubt that there are fixed causes governing these matters. A 

 scale could be formed of the relative abundance of the different species in any 

 locality, and this would be true for one year after another. There is in this 

 locality, perhaps, one pewee and one orchard oriole to two kingbirds, to two 

 brown thrushes, to four bobolinks, to four Baltimore orioles, to eight blue- 

 birds, to twenty robins, to thirty chipping sparrows. While we are estimating 

 birds for what they eat, the quantity eaten becomes the matter of most import- 

 ance, and this depends especially upon the number of the eaters. 



The subject of birds' adaptability to man's presence is also one which I have 

 not seen discussed, but which becomes of the utmost importance in treating of 

 their usefulness. Some of our birds so detest the presence of man that they take 

 shelter from him in the most impenetrable woodlands and swamps, and when 

 dwellings and towns become too frequent they even desert their old homes alto- 

 gether. Others, from the first, love man's protection and society, and soon 

 come to build their nests in the hollow stumps and in the corners of the rail 

 fence of the backwoods settler, and then they increase as the people increase, 

 and grow up with the towns, and become polished citizens, looking out uncon- 

 cernedly from their nests in the shade trees and porches upon the dust and 



