130 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



" little robbers or pests," as some of our Southern Illinois Fruit Growers 

 are pleased to call them. 



And yet there are many fine exceptions, where very much benefit is 

 done by them, and only kindness and protection is wanted in return. 

 The subject of Bird Economy has been a study of much interest to me. 

 for several years, and I can see that very much is yet to be learned. 



The time of most Ornithologists of the present day has been devoted, 

 principally, to discovering new species, giving them names, describing the 

 form, plumage, size, and habitat. (The last we shall find of much value). 



What we now most want to learn is Ornithology, not in a scientific 

 meaning of the term, but in its relations to " dollars and cents " — a sub- 

 ject which, at the present day is receiving much attention in the old coun- 

 tries of Europe, where the destruction of the small birds has been carried 

 on to an alarming extent; as without the assistance of the birds to 

 destroy insects, vermin and decaying animal matter, man could probably 

 not exist upon the earth. 



Since the time of Audubon, Wilson, and Nuttall — whose writings 

 are not only very expensive, but rare and difficult to obtain by most stu- 

 dents in Natural Histoiy — very little, if anything, has been added to the 

 knowledge of the birds in regard to their food or habits. As the food of 

 many of them can only be determined by the aid of a competent ento- 

 mologist, Dr. De Ivay, in his Ornithology of the State of New York, 

 does not mention those which are beneficial or those which are injurious; 

 a subject which should have been as carefully studied as were the noxious 

 and beneficial insects by Dr. Fitch and Prof. Emmons. Very- much has 

 yet to be learned on this, to you, very important subject, and the same un- 

 certainty with regard to the practical value of many of the birds that now 

 exist may continue for years, unless some effort is made to have this sub- 

 ject investigated. It is not enough that birds should be collected, their 

 form, plumage, size, and locality described. To this information should 

 be added the time of an'ival in spring; season of nesting in different 

 localities of our »State; the distribution of the species; what is their food? 

 insects, fruit or grain .^ If insects, whether those that are noxious or ben- 

 eficial, and at what seasons of the year they feed upon such insects; as 

 many species of birds eat insects during the spring, which as soon as fruit 

 ripens feed almost entirely upon that. 



My much lamented friend. Prof. B. D. Walsh, was of the opinion that 

 some of the birds eat species of insects which are beneficial to the fruit- 

 grower and farmer by feeding upon the noxious species, although of this 

 he was not positive; and during the last few years of his life was ex- 

 ceedingly anxious to have this subject properly investigated ; and in addi- 

 tion to his duties as State Entomologist was willing to do his part of the 

 work of such investigation, free of extra expense to the State. One thing 

 is most certain — the birds do interfere, very materially with the entomolo- 

 gist's crops of insects. In the last report of the Commissioner of Agri- 

 culture, at Washington, there is a paper written by Mr. E. A. Samuels, 

 on a few of the birds of New England. This is a beginning in the right 

 direction, as he writes of the food of the birds. 



