78 BOARD OP AGRICULTURE. [Jail., 



is known. The fact is, that while our standard ornithologists, such 

 as Audubon, Wilson, Nuttall, and others, who had. time for such 

 investigations, were unable to incorporate them into their works 

 from the necessity of expense of publication, our later authors 

 have been unable to spare the time for such occupation, though 

 abundantly assured of surety of publication. It is true that a very 

 few authors have mentioned a very few facts connected with the 

 relation between birds and agriculture, but as yet little practical 

 good has resulted to the farmer from them. Although it would 

 be strange if I should be able to add much real new material to 

 the subject as presented to-night, I shall strive to collect, from the 

 various sources, somewhat of the material already before the pub- 

 lic, and present it to you in as attractive and practical a light as I 

 may be able. 



It is only within recent years that it has been discovered that 

 birds presented a useful and often most valuable part in the 

 economy of nature; what few facts we do know regarding the 

 matter have been obtained more through the direct experience of 

 those who have stumbled on the facts they relate than those who 

 have made any special study of the matter. One great difficulty 

 has been that people looked too far and studied too deeply for 

 facts which were right before them. For instance, people are well 

 acquainted with the fact that hawks, becoming bold, pounce down 

 upon and carry off chickens from the hen-yards and eat them ; 

 how rnany are acquainted with the fact that in hard winters, when 

 pressed'for food, crows do this likewise ? But what does this sig- 

 nify ? Simply that the crow regulates its food from necessity and 

 not from choice. Now carry this fact into operation in the spring 

 into the cornfield. Do you suppose that the crow, being hungry, 

 and dropping into a field of corn, wherein is abundance to, satisfy 

 his desires, stops, as many affirm, to pick out only those kernels 

 which are affected with mildew, larva, or weevil ? Does he, in- 

 stinctively, know what corns, when three or four inches beneath 

 the ground, are thus affected or not ? Not a bit of it. To him, 

 a strictly grain-feeding and not an insect-eating bird, the necessity 

 takes the place of the choice. He is hungry; the means of satisfy- 

 ing his hunger present themselves. He naturally drops down in the 

 first cornfield he sees, calls all his neighbors to the feast, and then 

 roots up and swallows the kernels until he can hold no more. 

 Such, so far as known, are the facts of the case. Do they look 



