398 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



THE FOOD OF BIRDS. 



ALBERT LANO, MADISON. 



I have chosen this for my subject, not because it is a new one, but I 

 wish to bring it to the notice of this society, with the view of saving some 

 innocent bird-lives, and doing good to my fellow men. 



Every practical and observing ornithologist knows quite well what con- 

 stitutes the principal food of the different orders and families of birds, and 

 needs, therefore, no information on this subject. It is then for your 

 benefit that I give my personal experience and observation here. 



There are no other classes of men that derive so much direct good from 

 the birds as do the horticulturist and the farmer. No matter how much 

 rain we have at the right season, no matter how much sunshine and 

 favorable weather, nor how much pains you have taken with the best 

 kind of soil, the insects would spoil the crops, or at least a good 

 share of them, were they not greatly diminished all the year round 

 by the feathered tribes of the air. Some of the birds live entirely 

 on insects, summer and winter, while others only during the breeding 

 season in the spring and early summer. There is not a single native 

 bird in North America that needs to be killed off for the damage 

 it does. It is true that some of our native species can and will 

 do some damage. The beautiful robin, that had its nest in your 

 yard and sang to you all spring and summer, will pick a grape or a 

 cherry in the fall— but why not? Has he not eaten the worms and 

 beetles from the vines all summer? Indeed he has, and has brought 

 up a large family, besides, on vyorms that he found in your gar- 

 den. There are other species that can and will do a little damage In 

 the orchard in this way, but it is so small that I do nob believe one of us 

 is justified in killing a single bird. Should they become too numerous in 

 the vineyard or orchard while fruit is ripening, and you notice that dam- 

 age is being done, you can easily rid yourself of them by firing a gun, but be 

 very careful not to aim at the birds themselves. 



The amount of insect food consumed by a single bird in one day is 

 wonderful; some observers have tried to estimate the number, and have 

 found that one bird will eat many thousand. 



I prepared a nighthawk last summer that weighed 21 oz. The stomach 

 contained i oz. solid insect food. It can readily be seen that these birds 

 will eat many times their own weight of insects in one summer. In an- 

 other specimen, I found a potato bug. 



A member of the committee on ornithology, two years ago, advised the 

 killing of the "sap sucker", or yellow billed woodpecker, because, he said, 

 they did so much damage in the way of boring trees for sap. This bird 

 is, no doubt, a "sap sucker," but he cannot live on sap alone, no more 

 than the hummingbirds can on honey. His tongue is somewhat different 

 from his cousin's, but his principal food is insects, just the same. The sap 

 season is only a short one, and the damage can only be very small. Let 

 me tell the same gentlemen that trees like the fir and other evergreen 

 trees have no sap! This bird, like all, do^^more real good in one day than 

 all the damage he can do in a year. Therefore, I say, do not diminish 

 his species by killing a single one. So much for seed and insect-eating 

 birds. 



