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grasshoppers, crickets, June-beetles, and other common insects. Four or five 
kinds of these birds breed in our state in large numbers every summer, and 
may frequently be seen following the farmer as his plow turns up the juicy 
but destructive grubs. A 
The ducks and geese, like their tame relatives, are also very fond of insects, 
which they catch about the margins of ponds and lakes near which they 
build their nests and raise their young. Even such birds as the bitterns and 
other herons kill many insects in addition to the snails, fishes, frogs, and other 
small animals which in part make up their bill of fare. 
The different kinds of snipes and their relatives are also great destroyers of 
insects. Moving over the landscape, as many of them do, in large flocks 
which spread out over the meadows, pastures, hillsides, and fields, they per- 
form a large amount of systematic police service in discovering and arresting 
the rascals among insects. They even pry them out of the cracks and holes 
in the ground where they have crawled and are hiding during the daytime. 
This they are enabled to do on account of the long, slender bills with which 
they are provided. 
The Prairie Chicken and Sharp-tailed Grouse, as well as the Quail or ‘‘ Bob- 
white,” all feed almost entirely on insects during the summer. They also eat 
large numbers of these creatures during the remainder of the year whenever 
they can get them. The Quail especially is to be considered one of our very 
best insect destroyers, since it eats both the Colorado potato beetle and the 
chinch-bug. Perhaps no other bird on the farm pays higher prices for the 
little grain it gets than does the Quail. Living about hedge-rows, groves, 
and in ravines, where insects gather and lurk during the greater part of the 
year, this bird discovers and devours large numbers of these enemies daily. 
Not only during the summer months when these vermin are moving about, 
but all winter, too, it scratches among the fallen leaves, and other rubbish 
seeking for hibernating insects of variouskinds. Being a timid bird it seldom 
leaves cover to feed openly in the fields, and therefore does little real harm in 
the way of destroying grain. 
Even the barnyard fowls do much in the way of destroying many different 
kinds of insects throughout the summer months. Where fields of grain can 
be gone over systematically by chickens, turkeys, guinea hens, and ducks, 
little or no damage is done by grasshoppers, cut-worms, and other similar 
pests, unless, of course, these insects are too numerous to be eaten by them. 
Ordinarily doves and pigeons are not considered harmful, yet they eat but 
fewinsects. But, on the other hand, many weed seeds, as sunflower, ragweed, 
foxtail, etc., are eaten by them. Perhaps, all told, the good done by them 
during the year will greatly overbalance the harm caused by their visits to 
the grain fields and feed lots. 
During recent years, since we began studying more carefully just what our 
various kinds of birds have been eating, it has been learned that many of those 
which we heretofore called rascals should really be considered as friends. 
Hawks and owls, all of which were killed on sight by nearly every man or 
boy who could shoot, are now spared, except when caught in the very act of 
stealing chickens. This change is due to the fact that we now know that 
