SOME NOTES ON NEBRASKA BIRDS. 53 



a paroxysm of laughter, as it were. Other birds, notably the domestic 

 cock, will call up to himself hens and chicks to partake of some sup- 

 posed dainty morsel, and then slap his leg with his wing and laugh at 

 the practical joke he has perpetrated. 



With these miscellaneous and general remarks about birds as an in- 

 troduction, and for the uninitiated, it will be more to the point in the 

 present paper to speak of the practical side of the subject. 



Quoting from a paper by Professor S. A. Forbes, who has done 

 much in the study of birds and their direct relation to man, we have 

 the following: "Excluding the inhabitants of the great seas, birds are 

 the most abundant of the Vertebrata, occupying in this great sub- 

 kingdom the same prominent position that insects do among inverte- 

 brate animals." This position of the two groups in their respective 

 divisions of the animal life of the globe cannot be due simply to 

 chance. There must be some connection between them. Let us see. 



In my former reports, to both this Society and to the State Board of 

 Agriculture, it has been shown time and again that not only are the 

 distinct kinds of insects almost myriads in number, but also that the 

 individuals of each species are incalculable. That their powers of re- 

 production are simply wonderful, being limited only by the amount 

 of food available, etc. Now, the disproportionate number of birds on 

 the other hand, with "their universal distribution, the remarkable lo- 

 comotive»power which enables them readily to escape unfavorable con- 

 ditions, and their higher rate of life, requiring for their maintenance 

 an amount of food relatively enormous," give to them a significance 

 which few seem ever to have realized. While naturally birds are 

 quite numerous both in species and individuals, their greatest enemy, 

 man, has so depleted their ranks in many localities that they have be- 

 come scarce. 



Perhaps few of us have ever thought much about what birds eat. 

 Yet those who have studied these creatures assure us that a very large 

 per cent of their food, possibly fully three-fourths, consists of insects. 

 Even those species which are classed as graminivorous, during the 

 summer months from choice partake chiefly of an insect diet. 



Careful estimates of three conservative ornithologists have placed 

 the bird-life of Illinois at three birds per acre during the six summer 

 months. Now, if we place their number for Nebraska at one and 

 one-half birds to each acre during a similar period, we would have in 



