PREVENTING THE DEPREDATIONS OF BIRDS. 295 



their regulation are formulated. Moreover, the sins of the 

 individual ought not to be saddled on the whole of its race, as 

 is too often done. Because one red-shouldered hawk, for in- 

 stance, comes to the yard and carries away chickens, the next 

 ninety-nine, which are worthy pursuers of mice and similar 

 vermin, should not be sacrificed for the sins of the guilty one. 

 This is one of the gravest errors to which birds are subjected. 

 When people learn to discriminate as carefully between good 

 and bad wild birds as they do between good and bad domes- 

 tic birds, they will have learned an important lesson, both for 

 themselves and for their feathered benefactors. No person 

 is qualified to deal repressively with birds who has not a 

 thorough knowledge of their habits. Possessed of such knowl- 

 edge, one is able to work intelligently to avail himself of their 

 benefits in fullest measure and to give in return the least pos- 

 sible compensation. 



The number of birds that are harmful, including those but 

 partially so, is so small that it would seem an easy matter to 

 control them. A few species destroy grain, a few injure trees, 

 a few purloin fruit, and a few steal chickens. These culprits, 

 all told, are but a small fraction of our avifauna. But though 

 the species that need regulating are few, several of them are 

 so numerous individually that the damage done is sometimes 

 serious. The worst offenders are those that invade grain- 

 fields, — that is to say, crows, blackbirds, bobolinks, jays, and 

 their kin. 



As grain thieves, crows are most notorious of all, from the 

 fact that they are more uniformly distributed, and also because 

 they pay particular attention to sprouting grain. Their supe- 

 rior size enables them to pull up the planted seeds, and 

 correspondingly large quantities are required to satisfy their 

 hunger. Moreover, crows are in a class by themselves on 

 account of their cunning. By experience they have learned 

 to work on the sly and to avoid the machinations which men 

 would employ to destroy them. 



