OUR BIRDS FROM AN ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 349 



OUR BIRDS FROM AN ECONOMIC STANDPOINT. 



PROF. F. L. WASHBURN, ST. ANTHONY PARK. 



In considering this subject bne must necessarily put aside all sen- 

 timent, he must forget the song of the whippoorwill, which lulled 

 him to sleep so many times when a boy, and the drunken melody of 

 the bobolink hovering over the clover on a warm June morning. 

 Nor must he be influenced by the thought of the spring note of the 

 bluebird, the robin's evening song or the memory of that song of 

 songs — the liquid music of the wood thrush. In avoiding Scylla, 

 however, he must beware lest he strike on Charybdis in condemn- 

 ing a number or all birds because he is being annoyed by or suffer- 

 ing a loss through their agency. 



It is and always has been a common practice, not only among 

 boys but among men as well, to shoot without hesitation any hawk, 

 owl, crow or blackbird which crossed their path while hunting, 

 upon the ground that all such are injurious. Should you ask why 

 they pass such judgment, you would be met with the statement that 

 they kill poultry and small birds, and destroy grain. 



If we consider the attitude of all our citizens toward our native 

 birds, we find very many who would protect each and all of our 

 feathered songsters ; many others who condemn the entire class, 

 regard them as robbers and slay them whenever opportunity offers ; 

 and a very few who are willing to discriminate between the good 

 and the bad — a difficult matter, I assure you. We find birds immor- 

 talized in poetry and prose on the one hand, and on the other de- 

 nounced by many orchardists and raisers of small fruits. 



There is no question but what under some conditions birds do 

 work a decided injury for which they apparently do not give ade- 

 quate recompense. For instance, the owner of a berry farm is very 

 sure to be a suflferer at their hands. Birds feed their young almost 

 entirely on insects, and if the environment of their nests is insect 

 producing they naturally will take advantage of this state of affairs 

 and will not have to make long journeys to secure nitrogenous food 

 for their young, but will take the insects close at hand. Unfortun- 

 ately, our berry farms do not always offer suitable opportunities for 

 the nesting of birds, and they, therefore, rear their young in neigh- 

 boring, more wooded ranches. They thus make little return to the 

 berry grower for their stealings, while they may be benefiting his 

 neighbor quite decidedly. 



When we hear of the wholesale destruction of our song birds 

 most of us are shocked, and we are filled with pity when we see in 

 the papers the accounts of so-called shooting matches where a robin 



