BIRDS AND FARMERS, 



From the Forest and Stream. 



(^ HE advocates of protection for 



^ our small birds present two 



(J sets of reasons for preventing 



~^~ their killing ; the one senti- 

 mental, and the other economic. 



The sentimental reasons are the 

 ones most often urged ; they are also 

 of a kind to appeal with especial force 

 to those whose responsibility for the 

 destruction of the birds is greatest. 

 The women and girls, for whose adorn- 

 ment birds' plumage is chiefly used, 

 think little and know less about the 

 services which birds perform for agri- 

 culture, and indeed it may be doubted 

 whether the sight of a bunch of feathers 

 or a stuffed bird's skin suggests to 

 them any thought of the life that 

 those feathers once represented. But 

 when the wearers are reminded that 

 there was such a life; that it was 

 cheery and beautiful, and that it was 

 cut short merely that their apparel 

 might be adorned, they are quick to 

 recognize that bird destruction involves 

 a wrong, and are ready to do their part 

 toward ending it by refusing to wear 

 plumage. 



The small boy who pursues little 

 birds from the standpoint of the hunter 

 in quest of his game, feels only the ardor 

 of pursuit. His whole mind is con- 

 centrated on that and the hunter's 

 selfishness, the desire of possession, fills 

 his heart. Ignorance and thought- 

 lessness destroy the birds. 



Every one knows in a general way 

 that birds render most valuable service 

 to the farmer, but although these 

 services have long been recognized in 

 the laws standing on the statute books 

 of the various states, it is only within 

 a few years that any systematic 

 investigations have been undertaken to 

 determine just what such services are, 

 to measure them with some approach to 

 accuracy, to weigh in the case of each 

 species the good and the evil done, and 



so to strike a balance in favor of the 

 bird or against it. The inquiries 

 carried on by the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment on a large scale and those made 

 by various local experiment stations 

 and by individual observers have given 

 results which are very striking and 

 which can no longer be ignored. 



It is a difficult matter for any one to 

 balance the good things that he reads 

 and believes about any animal against 

 the bad things that he actually sees. 

 The man who witnesses the theft of 

 his cherries by robin or catbird, or the 

 killing of a quail by a marsh hawk, 

 feels that here he has ocular proof of 

 harm done by the birds, while as to 

 the insects or the field mice destroyed, 

 and the crops saved, he has only the 

 testimony of some unknown and dis- 

 tant witness. It is only natural that 

 the observer should trust the evidence 

 of his senses, and yet his eyes tell him 

 only a small part of the truth, and that 

 small part a misleading one. 



It is certain that without the ser- 

 vices of these feathered laborers, whose 

 work is imseen, though it lasts from 

 daylight till dark through every day 

 in the year, agriculture in this country 

 would come to an immediate stand- 

 still, and if in the brief season of fruit 

 each one of these workers levies on 

 the farmer the tribute of a few berries, 

 the price is surely a small one to pay 

 for the great good done. Superficial 

 persons imagine that the birds are 

 here only during the summer, but this 

 is a great mistake. It is true that in 

 warm weather, when insect life is 

 most abundant, birds are also most 

 abundant. They wage an effective 

 and unceasing war against the adult 

 insects and their larvae, and check 

 their active depredations; but in 

 winter the birds carry on a campaign 

 which is hardly less important in its 

 results. 



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