September 4, 1909 



THE VALUE OF WILD BIRDS IN 

 FIELD AND FOREST. 



An Address liefoie Ibe National Jirigatlou 

 Congress at Spokane, Wasli., Lv Wil- 

 liam L. Finley. 



Our Real Wealth. 



"We all know that the real wealth 

 of the countiy is based upon agricul- 

 ture aud horticulture. Without the 

 help of our wild birds, farming would 

 be impossible. No farm hands can ac- 

 complish the work intrusted to the 

 birds. Wild birds of orchard, field, and 

 forest are Nature's check upon the in- 

 crease of insect life. With the great 

 handicap of bird destruction in our 

 present day, the loss from insect and 

 rodent pests in the United Staits the 

 past year is estimated at ?iOO,i.i0(_i,0OO. 



The Plague of Insects. 

 "According to a recent report of 

 the government, insects alone cause 

 an annual loss to the trees of the 

 country estimated at over a hun- 

 dred million dollars. On the oak alone 

 400 species of insects which are sought 

 and consumed by the birds of the for- 

 est, prey constantly, the experts of the 

 Biological Survey have discovered. On 

 the willow 1S6 such species constantly 

 attempt its destruction, on the pine 

 165, on the hicKory 170, on the birch 

 105 and on the elm 80. Careful analy- 

 sis of the stomachs of thousands o£ 

 wood-peckers, titmice, cieepeis, king- 

 lets, wood warl)lers, wrens, tly-catch- 

 ers, swallows, nut hatches and other 

 birds of the woods show that their con- 

 stant labor is to consume just these 

 devastating insects. 



What Birds Consume. 



"Birds police the earth and air 

 and without their services the farmer 

 would be helpless. Larks, wrens 

 and thrushes search the ground for 

 grubs and instcts. The food of the 

 meadow lark consists of 75 per cent, of 

 injurious insects and 12 per cent. o£ 

 weed seed. Sparrows, finches and 

 Quail eat a large amount of weed seed. 

 Examinations by Professor F. E. L. 

 Bea! of the Biological Survey of the 

 Department of Agriculture show that 

 a single tree sparrow will eat a quar- 

 ter of an ounce of weed seed daily. In 

 a state the size of Iowa, tree sparrows 

 alone will consume more than eight 

 hundred tons of weed seed annually. 



Nuthatches and chickadees scan 

 every part of the trunks and limbs 

 of trees for insect eggs. In a day's 

 time a chickadee has been known 

 to eat hundreds of insect eggs and 

 v.'orms that are very harmful to 

 our trees and vegetables. Warblers 

 and vireos hunt the leaves and buds 

 for moths and millers. Flycatchers, 

 swallows and night hawks are busy 

 day aud nighi catching flies that 

 bother men and beasts. Hawks and 

 owls are working silently in daylight 

 and darkness to catch moles, mice, 

 gophers and squirrels. 



The Farmers' Friend. 

 "The valuable service which birds 

 reiider about the farm is shown most 

 strikingly in places where insects and 

 rodents have become so numerous as 

 to destroy crops. Birds collect in such 

 places where food is abundant and by 

 giving their whole time to hunting and 

 eating these insects, they become the 

 most valuable assistants the farmer 



HORTICULTURE 



can Iiav.e. To H-l«9trat«: TTTew years 

 ago a large apple orchard in central 

 Illinois was attacked by canker worms. 

 Professor S. A. Forbes spent two sea- 

 sons in this locality studying bird lite. 

 He examined the stomachs of 36 differ- 

 ent species of birds and found that 72 

 per cent, of these were eating canker 

 worms. Out of a Hock of 35 cedar wax- 

 wings, seven were killed and examined. 

 With the exception of a few small 

 beetles, these birds were living entirely 

 on canker worms. By actual count, he 

 found 70 to 101 worms in the stomachs 

 of each one of these birds. If we as- 

 sume that each w-axwing ate 100 worms 

 a day, which is a very low estimate, 

 the flock of 30 were destroying 3,000 a 

 day. 



Blackbirds or Locusts? 



"A number of years ago blackbirds 

 were exceedingly abundant through 

 eastern Nebraska. They were so plen- 

 tiful that the farmers believed they 

 were damaging crops. They began 

 poisoning the birds. A single grain of 

 corn soaked in strj-chnine was enough 

 to kill a blackbird. In the years that 

 followed, great numbers of these and 

 other birds were destroyed during the 

 spring and fall. At the same time 

 thousands of quail, prairie chickens 

 and other game birds were killed in 

 every county to supply the market. As 

 the birds began to disappeai', swarms 

 of locusts took their place. These in- 

 sects hatched out in countless numbers 

 and began devastating crops. Few 

 fields of grain escaped damage. Many 

 were entirely destroyed. Where black- 

 birds, quail, prairie chickens, plover 

 and other birds remained, they took to 

 living entirely on locusts. In such lo- 

 calities fair crops were secured solely 

 through the assistance of the birds. 



"When the Mormons first settled in 

 Utah, black crickets came in great 

 myriads from the mountains and would 

 have destroyed the crops had it not 

 been for the gulls that came by the 

 hundreds and thousands from the sur- 

 rounding lakes. At that time the set- 

 tlers at Salt Lake regarded the advent 

 of the birds as a heaven-sent miracle, 

 and ever since the gull has been es- 

 teemed almost as a sacred bird by the 

 Mormons. About the beet and alfalfa 

 fields when they are being irrigated 

 the gulls still collect and feed largely 

 on the field-mice that are so destnic- 

 tive. 



An Awful Slaughter. 



"Years ago a hunter along the 

 Massachusetts coast shot some terns 

 and sent the plumage to a New York 

 milliner. The tern is a bird that is 

 sometimes called the sea-swallow or 

 summer gull. Its plumage is as deli- 

 cate as its flight is graceful. The long 

 pointed wings and tails of these birds 

 at once became stylish. 'Send more 

 tern wings. We can pay cash for all 

 you forward,' the telegram ran. Deal- 

 ers in plumage immediately issued cir- 

 culars asking for large^ quantities of 

 terns and sea-gulls. The demand kept 

 running ahead of the supply. Up and 

 down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts 

 and through the country the word went 

 forth. Never had there been such a 

 slaughter of biids in this countiy. Thou- 

 sands of terns were killed along the 

 coast of Massachusetts and at other 

 breeding places. At Cobb's Island, Vir- 

 ginia, one of the baymen said 1,400 

 terns were killed in a single day and 



S41 



40.0U0 were shot during the summer. 

 The destruction at other places was 

 equally great. In two or three seasons 

 the killing of these breeding birds had 

 its effect. These well-known bird colo- 

 nies were a thing of the past. 



"One can g'et an idea of the 

 slaughter of one species of tern by 

 glancing at the records of the feather 

 sale at the Commercial Sales Rooms 

 in London on April 14, 1908, when one 

 shipment of oVer 14,000 sooty terns 

 was catalogued. Again at the sale on 

 June 10, 15,500 more skins of this same 

 species were on sale. This means 

 that professional plume hunters had 

 found and raided new breeding places 

 of this species and practically every 

 bird had been killed. 



For Women's Fancy. 



"Years ago great flocks of gulls and 

 terns added life and inter'est to our 

 sandy shores. White herons flocked 

 through swamps and everglades of the 

 southern states; the great tule 

 marshes of the West were white with 

 the nesting multitude. In those hal- 

 cyon days men would have scoffed if 

 you had said these birds, so strong in 

 numbers, could have been destroyed. 

 They were so harmless to mankind 

 that at that time no one could think 

 of a cause that might lead to their 

 extermination. There was no cause 

 except their marvelous beauty. Yet in 

 less than a quarter of a century some 

 of the plume birds have all but taken 

 their places with vanished races. 



"Although the decrease of bird num- 

 bers has been so marked in our coun- 

 try, it has been even more deplorable 

 in other lands. The demands for 

 plumage of wild birds have been grow- 

 ing. All through the tropical coun- 

 tries natives were eagerly looking for 

 an easy means of livelihood. Killing 

 all kinds of birds has opened the way. 

 Thousands of Indians and negroes 

 have been supplied with guns and am- 

 mimition by traders. Everywhere tliey 

 are roaming through the forests and 

 swamps, seeking the last individuals 

 of the species that are left. Many a 

 rare and beautiful bird has been 

 slaughtered beyond recovery. As the 

 plumage of these birds has become 

 scarce, prices have scored higher and 

 higher. But the money has been 

 ready. So the natives have sought 

 further and harder to lay low the last 

 plume bearer. 



What of the Future? 



"What will come of it all, this 

 slaughter of the birds? If these 

 plumes were only answering some real 

 need, — but th'ey are for decoration 

 only. As yet no person has ever of- 

 fered a single logical reason for this 

 destruction, yet there are many rea- 

 sons against it. The prosperity of all 

 nations must depend to a large ex- 

 tent upon agricultural pursuits. With 

 our bird numbers so rapidly de- 

 creasing, the balance of nature is 

 bound to be affected. Our wild 

 birds are as much a part of the 

 natural resources of the country as 

 are the forests and streams. For our 

 own prosperity, we should not permit 

 these resources to be ravaged. Saving 

 our wild birds is a debt we owe, not 

 only to ourselves, but what is of more 

 importance, we are in duty bound to 

 transmit this inheritance to our 

 children." 



