454 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 0£E. Doc 



REPORT OF THE ORNITHOLOGIST 



By DR. JOSEPH KALBFUS 



Who is Neighbor to the Birds? 



For many years those who have investigated and understood the 

 value of the lifework of birds have been striving to have the people 

 around them understand this matter as it should be understood. 

 Through pamphlets, illustrated lectures, and in various other ways, 

 this matter has been persistently called to the attention of our people, 

 so that the value in dollars and cents that comes through the presence 

 of this or that species of birds is so well understood that I need not 

 dwell upon it at this time. The great majority of birds are our 

 friends, the value of the lifework of this family or that species is un- 

 doubted, each in its own place is doing something for us, especially for 

 the farmer, the value of which cannot be expressed in words or figures. 



Experience teaches that a little kindness, either in word or deed, 

 has its effect upon wild animals and birds, just as it has with human 

 beings or with domestic creatures. Without this kindly attention 

 the birds are apt to drift or be driven from us, to our great disad- 

 vantage. What have we done, either to attract these feathered friends 

 or to keep them with us? The fact that I may permit a covey of 

 quail or a flock of other birds to feed upon my premises, or at least 

 to not drive them away, is not feeding tlie birds ; they have done me 

 more good than I have done them; they have at least cost me noth- 

 ing, and I am afraid that many of us are not doing for the birds what 

 we should do, and I only wish I had the power to say or do some- 

 thing that would cause the farmers of this State to realize the true 

 position they occupy regarding this subject. When the farmer, the 

 farmer's wife, his sons and his daughters, do for the birds what they 

 can and should do, then, indeed, can it be said for the birds, "The 

 winter is over and gone and the voice of the turtle is heard in the 

 land." 



I know the many turns the farmer and his family are required to 

 make each day; I know how all his time is taken, and when I say 

 that but a few farmers do an3^thing for the birds around them, I in- 

 tend to make only a plain unvarnished statement of fact, and not to 

 be offensive. I happen to have spent some considerable part of my 

 life in the country, and say what I do after a careful canvass o^f 

 the question extending through a serious of at least forty years. To 

 my mind, the farmer has not been neighbor to the birds; I know of 

 but few farmers who, unless they were also sportsmen, have ever 

 done one thing to attract the birds, either game or otherwise. Upon 

 the other hand, they have done much to injure and drive the birds 

 away, and how have thej^ done this? The old tree filled with wood- 

 pecker holes in which the hairy and downy woodpecker and the 

 chickadee and the nuthatch found winter homes, and in which the 

 bluebird and many other early Spring migrants found shelter from 

 cold and sleet, have been long since transferred to the farmer's wood- 



