254 ANNUAL REPORT 



very queer and good thoughts. We are told that in China and 

 India a variety of water birds called cormorants are taught to 

 catch fish and carry them to their masters. In our own country 

 they have been used as messengers. 



But time will not permit us to notice all the good done by our 

 feathered friends. In the eyes of the average horticulturist, 

 they are simply insect destroyers, and as such they do not 

 receive the notice and protection which they really deserve. 

 N'ow, supposing that insects are principally bird food; in order 

 to satisfy the enormous appetites of the birds, it was necessary 

 in creatiug insects to have the reproductive faculty predominate. 

 And some varieties are astonishingly prolific, laying thousands 

 of eggs during a life of but a few days; and IsTature's great incu- 

 bator works better than auy patent self-regulator which the in- 

 genuity of the Yankee ever hatched up. It has been estimated 

 that one insect may in one year become the progenitor of 6,000,- 

 000,000 descendants. Three hundred and twenty-five thousand 

 species of insects are knowu, and thousands more are as yet un- 

 known to naturalists. If undisturbed, they would soon increase 

 to such prodigious numbers as to destroy all vegetation and ani- 

 mal life would soon perish. Xow the only thing which prevents 

 this catastrophe is birds, and I say they are our best friends and 

 well deserve our protection. The damage done to our crops by 

 insects can not be accurately estimated, but that it amounts to 

 several hundred millions of dollars annually in the United States 

 alone is a certain fact. In our laud of plenty this great loss is 

 unfelt and unknown by the majority of the people, but the time 

 is not far distant when some steps must be taken to prevent the 

 ravages of insect pests, which are rapidly increasing as the birds 

 are diminishing. But the question arises. What can be done? 

 A man can not spend his time hunting worms, and he is not very 

 well adapted to that kind of warfare. The very best way to 

 fight them is with birds, and if let alone there would be enough 

 of them to keep insects within proper bounds. Nature makes 

 no mistakes, and the proportion of birds and insects is self- regu- 

 lating and would always remain so if it were not for the inter- 

 ference of man. But that the birds are rapidly diminishing and 

 the insects correspondingly increasing is a fact that sticks out 

 so plain that "he who runs may read." 



Now let us briefly notice the various causes of this alarming 

 decrease of our birds. The larger birds of prey, such as the 

 hawks and owls, no doubt destroy a great many beneficial 



