FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 459 



nesting: places farther north. These that are residents here during the sum- 

 mer are the dickcissel, the field sparrow, the chipping sparrow, and the 

 grasshopper sparrow. 



Flocks of goldfinches often remain with us during the winter. Unless 

 we are very careful observers, however, we shall not recognize them for now 

 they wear a coat of olive green, instead of their beautiful black and yellow 

 garment of the summer. They too, are, great seed-eaters and one of the most 

 useful of our birds, their favorite food being the seed of the thistle and 

 dandelion. We have two other birds that are great seed-eaters and there- 

 fore we often have them with us all the year. They are the mourning dove 

 and the prairie horned lark. The mourning dove is especially fond of weed- 

 seeds. In one stomach were found six thousand four hundred seeds of fox- 

 tail. 



The bluejay now and then shows some bad traits of character, but since 

 he stays with us all winter and is so industrious and beautiful to look at, we 

 are all more than glad to have him for a winter neighbor at least. 



Now we will take just a glimpse of an entirely different class of birds, 

 different especially in their food. They are the crows, hawks and owls. 

 They crow, one species of owl and two of hawks are placed upon the black 

 list by many, because they sometime destroy poultry. The contents of 

 more than a hundred stomachs of these chicken eaters have been examined, 

 and in them were found more of the remains of ground squirrels and 

 rabbits than of any other food save mice. 



Hundreds of crows roost in our grove near the house every winter and so 

 far have given us no trouble whatever. The little corn they have eaten they 

 are welcome to, the most of it would have gone to waste anyway. I think 

 we ought to be willing to give them something for ridding us of the noxious 

 insects they feed their young upon during the summer. This food consists 

 largely of May beetles, grasshopers, cutworms, and other equally injurious 

 kinds. 



One good farmer who has made birds a study believes that the good 

 qualities of owls, hawks, and crows, far outweigh their bad ones, and that 

 so far as he can he will always protect all of them. The only bird he will 

 wage war against is the English sparrow. 



Now we will consider that great class of birds, that come in the spring, 

 build their nests, rear their young, then fly away again to their homes in the 

 south. They are our summer residents. Some morning very soon now we 

 we shall hear a familiar sound just outside our door; on looking out we shall 

 see our last summer's robin, and he will see us too. The first thing we 

 know he will run four or five feet away, stick his bill into the ground when 

 lo! he wil.l have a worm, and we will wonder, as we have wondered hundreds 

 of times before, how he could possibly have known it was there. Almost at 

 the same time the bluebirds and blackbirds will come, then the meadow 

 lark, cowbird, towhee, wren, brown thrasher, wood thrush, catbird, bobo- 

 link, and rose-breasted grosbeak. These birds feed mostly upon injurious 

 insects, found on or near the ground, the rose-breasted grosbeak being 

 especially fond of potato bugs. The robin, catbird and brown thrasher 

 like fruit in its season, and we are willing they should have it too when we 

 know the good they do us in the destruction of insects, and too, because of 

 their delightful companionship. 



