22 EEPORT OF NEAV JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Owl, these birds feed almost exclusively on mice and grasshoppers 

 and are of great economic importance. 



Cuckoos. — Entirely beneficial, especially noteworthy as destroyers of 

 caterpillars. 



^Yoodpec'kers. — Almost entirely beneficial, food consisting of insects 

 of various kinds, mainly wood-borers, but in the case of the Flicker 

 largely ground insects, including the notorious Chinch Bug. The 

 Eed-headed Woodpecker very rarely takes fruit and berries, and the 

 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker sometimes injures trees by girdling them 

 with holes, but such damage is easily overbalanced by the good they do. 



N ighthawhs ,, Swifts, Flycatchers, Swallows, Vireos, Warblers, 

 Wrens, Titmice, Nuthatches and Kinglets are almost or entirely in- 

 sectivorous, and never do damage of any kind. The benefit to the 

 farmer that these birds render in the destruction of noxious insects is 

 incalculable. 



Native Sparrows and Finches, Orioles, Thrashers, Thrushes, Blue- 

 birds, and Meadow Larks, while not wholly insectivorous, limit their 

 vegetable diet to wild berries and fruits and seeds of weeds and grass, 

 so that they are wholly beneficial. 



Crows, Blackbirds, Robins and Catbirds are the species usually 

 denounced by farmers, and often with just cause, but we must not 

 forget the fact that the damage these birds do to grain or fruit is 

 limited to a very small part of the year, while during the other 

 months they are beneficial for the most part. Devices for driving 

 them away from crops or planting wild fruit trees for their use, as 

 explained under the several species in the following pages, is far 

 wiser than extermination. 



Kingfishers, Herons and Fish-hawks are often condemned by owners 

 of fish ponds but the damage they do is very slight, and, as Mr. F. M. 

 Chapman says, "The value of birds to man cannot be expressed in 

 dollars and cents. The Kingfisher is far too interesting and char- 

 acteristic a feature of our ponds, lakes and' waterways to be extermin- 

 ated. Admitting that certain individuals of the species are injurious, 

 it does not follow that the whole race should be condemned." 



The following pamphlets should be consulted by all interested in 

 the preservation of our birds: 



Educational Leaflets. Issued by the National Association of Au- 

 dubon Societies, 141 Broadway, N. Y. 



How Birds Affect the Orchard. F. E. L. Beal, U. S. Dept. Agricul- 

 ture Year-book, 1900. 



