INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS 



to the extent of only 50 cents per acre. This would 

 mean thai insects destroy each year in Virginia four 

 and one-half million dollars' worth of farm crops. If 

 the damage were only 10 cents per acre, the loss would 

 still be nearly a million dollars. But 50 cents is a low 

 estimate, and we may safely say that each year in the 

 State of Virginia four and one-half million dollars' 

 worth of farm produce is destroyed by insects. This is 

 an enormous loss, and the farmers should welcome any 

 means of checking it. 



213. Insects Eaten by Birds. — Now, have we no 

 means at hand of lessening the number of destructive 

 Birds that make insects their principal food 

 must destroy great numbers. Anyone who is at all 

 observant must have noticed how many birds are con- 

 stantly punning insects. The robin is busy most of 

 the day, hopping about on the ground picking up the 

 insects that constitute its food; we have all seen these 

 birds at work, and also the many birds feeding in the 

 air and on the trees. We must have noticed them. But 

 if better proof than our own observation is desired, we 

 have it from good authority. " Professor Forbes, 

 Director of the Illinois State Laboratory of Natural 

 History, found 17r» larvae of Bibio — I 11 v. which, in the 

 larval stage, feeds on the roots of grass — in the 

 stomach of a single robin, ami the intestines contained 

 probably as many more."* Another excellent authority 

 states: "In a certain town where the elms had been 

 1 for several years, the cedar birds appeared and 

 the elms were afterwards comparatively free from these 



•Report of Conn. Board of Agr., 18M, p. 77. 



