BIRDS 



outraged Nature arose and smote those unreasoning 

 farmers in the form of countless hosts of locusts which 

 swept the land bare of crops and pasturage. " As ye 

 sow, so shall ye reap." 



In 1895, in the region of Ekaterinburg, in Russian 

 Siberia, two species of cut-worms and about ten species 

 of locusts devastated the countryside, and the farmers 

 were in despair, for there was famine throughout the 

 land. The local Society of Natural Sciences carefully 

 investigated the cause, and declared it to be due to the 

 almost complete destruction of the native birds, which 

 had been killed and their plumage sent abroad to 

 gratify women's vanity. 



The tick is a living, ever-present nightmare to the 

 farmer. Knowing its disease-carrying propensities, 

 he never can tell when it may infect his flocks and 

 herds with a disease that will destroy, perchance, the 

 majority of them. The tick is the most formidable 

 enemy with which the stock farmer has to contend. 



With but few exceptions the ground birds feed 

 more or less on ticks. Some species of birds, such as 

 the tick birds {Buphagd), take them direct from the 

 cattle, but the majority feed on them upon the herbage 

 and ground. When a female tick has gorged herself 

 with blood, she drops from her host and crawls away 

 to seek a suitable place in which to deposit her eggs. 

 These blood-gorged ticks are eagerly sought after by 

 birds, which frequent the grazing grounds of cattle to 

 seek for them. 



Every female tick so destroyed means the destruc- 

 tion of thousands of eggs. For instance a quail, 



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