82 Wild Bird Guests 



we wish to or not, for we all eat what the farmer 

 grows, and whatever loss he sustains by having 

 a part of his crops destroyed, whether it be by 

 drought or insects, by floods or wild mice, by 

 storm or choking weeds, we must share by paying 

 higher prices for what is left. So we should all 

 be very much interested when the Department 

 of Agriculture goes on to tell us that birds con- 

 stitute the principal check upon the weeds and 

 insects and rodents which cause this tremendous 

 loss every year. And we may accept the state- 

 ments of the Department of Agriculture on this 

 subject with absolute confidence, because they 

 are not the result of guesswork or of prejudice, 

 but the result of careful investigation on the 

 part of scientific men who are giving their lives, 

 not to prove that birds are either beneficial or 

 the reverse, but to learn the truth about birds, 

 whatever that may be. For example, if Dr. 

 A. K. Fisher tells us that at least seventy-five 

 per cent, of the food of the short-eared owl con- 

 sists of mice, we can be as sure of it as that 

 seventy-five per cent, of a dollar is seventy-five 

 cents. You may be certain that Dr. Fisher has 

 taken nothing for granted. He has examined 

 hundreds of owl pellets and the stomachs of 

 hundreds of owls, from all parts of the country 

 and at all seasons of the year, and has reserved 



