6 
side that spring up either to give shade or later to bear good fruit. They also 
carry the spawn of fishes and small crustaceans among their feathers into new 
waters, and feed upon the countless millions of weed seeds that are scattered 
broadcast over our fields, meadows, pastures, and prairies. Some kinds live 
almost entirely upon insects; while others hunt out and destroy such small 
animals as mice, ground squirrels, and gophers. Still others, like some of the 
useful insects, act as scavengers by helping to remove decaying things that 
would make us sick if not cleared away. 
In addition to these direct benefits which we derive from the birds, we are 
further indebted to them for the cheer which their gay music, bright plumage, 
and pleasant manners bring to us. The birds form a carefully planned army 
of police, which is engaged in keeping things in nature about us balanced. 
But we can go even further when summing up the benefits that human 
beings derive from birds. A great many kinds provide us with excellent 
food, while others furnish downy feathers for making soft pillows upon which 
to rest our weary heads and warm coverlets for use upon our beds during the 
long cold winters. 
Everybody knows that birds sometimes also do harm. It is therefore our 
duty to learn just what this is and whether or not it is as great as some people 
try to make us believe. Quite a number of different kinds of birds are con- 
tinually doing things that we call wrong. If we only know of these wrongs 
and. nothing of the good things which they do it might go pretty hard with 
our feathered neighbors. 
Some of the wrongs that are perpetrated by birds, or at least which are 
credited to them, are such as cherry stealing, grain eating, grape puncturing, 
apple pecking, corn pulling, the carrying of various kinds of bark and other 
plant lice on their legs and feet from place to place, the spreading of hog 
cholera by crows and turkey buzzards, the robbing of eggs and young birds - 
from nests and even the poultry yard. 
Some of these so-called crimes are genuine and are to be regretted. Others 
are more imaginary than real. A few of them could be prevented in part or 
altogether, while others might be made less severe, if we were inclined to take 
the trouble to do it. After all that can be said in favor of and against the 
usefulness of birds in general, there can be but little doubt left in the minds 
of thinking and observing people as to the value of these creatures. Only 
ignorant and thoughtless persons will continue to destroy our birds indis- 
criminately after learning the actual facts about them. 
So varied is the task of ‘‘evening up” in nature spoken of above, that if 
attended to in the right way, the workers should be many and necessarily 
have widely different habits. That such really is the case, can easily be seen 
from a perusal of the following short account of the food habits of some of the 
different groups of our Nebraska birds: * 
Grebes and loons feed chiefly on snails and other water animals such as are 
found about ponds, lakes, and rivers. They also destroy grasshoppers and 
other destructive insects when these latter are found about'their haunts. 
The gulls, with their long wings and great powers of flight, often reach far 
inland in their journeys. Whenever they do they catch large numbers of 
