VALUE OF BIRDS TO MAN BUCKLAND. 447 



preyed upon by birds they would so increase in numbers that the 

 tree could not survive the injuries they would inflict. 



How dependent trees are on birds for their existence may be 

 gathered from the following illustration : As many of you probably 

 know, trees breathe through their leaves. Consequently, if the buds 

 of the leaves are prevented from developing, or are eaten, when 

 developed, by caterpillars, the tree is weakened. Many coniferous 

 trees will die if stripped of their foliage for one year. Deciduous 

 trees, if deprived of their respiratory organs for several years in 

 succession, will also perish, though these trees linger as a rule for two 

 or even three years before finally succumbing. 



Now, injur}'^ to its breathing organs is not the only danger to 

 which a tree ajSlicted in this way is subjected. The tree, being in a 

 weakened condition, is at once beset by beetles and other borers, who, 

 multiplying rapidly imder such favorable conditions, tunnel under 

 the bark until all the vital tissues of the poor tree are wasted. Thus 

 a tree which might have recovered from the injury to its lungs falls 

 a victim to the attacks of an insidious enemy which took advantage 

 of its enfeebled state. 



Woodpeckers or other birds of similar feeding habits would have 

 flown to the rescue of the tree and possibly saved its life ; but when 

 that corrective influence is missing, the tree must die. 



This illustration of the dependence of the tree on the bird and of 

 the bird on the tree is, of course, but one of a long series that could 

 be cited, and it is because of this most delicate adjustment between the 

 tree, the insect, and the bird that I regard as profoundly true Frank 

 M. Chapman's statement " that it can be clearly demonstrated that if 

 we should lose our birds we should also lose our forests." 



It is an ignorant schoolboy who does not know that if we lost our 

 forests we should lose also the moisture necessary for the production 

 of crops upon which man is dependent for his living. 



If, in his arrogance and folly, man exterminated the bird, thinking 

 himself capable of taking its place, he might be able to make shift 

 with his sprays to save some portion at least of his orchards and 

 gardens ; but of what avail w^ould be his puny efforts to protect from 

 the ravening maws of insects the forests of America and Africa, the 

 jungles of Asia, or the bush of Australia? Should he not, then, 

 protect by every means in his power every one of the forest birds, 

 who, as a matter of course, and without trouble or expense to him, 

 ordinarily accomplish, on his behalf, the herculean task of saving the 

 lives of the trees? One would think so. Yet in these very regions, 

 in these vast areas of valuable timber, every trunlc of which man will 

 some day need, there are being killed annually millions of the feath- 

 ered guardians of the tree, and killed, too, for no worthier purpose 

 than that, dead, they may defame a woman's head. 



