63 



Taking numerous bird censuses as a basis he asserts that it is 

 practically certain that there are nearly 4,000,000,000 breeding 

 birds in the United States each summer. The great majority 

 of the birds of the United States are migratory, and those 

 which are purely migratory in this country, breeding in northern 

 North America, probably equal or surpass the population of our 

 breeding birds. 



Mr. McAtee estimates the value of each bird as an insect 

 eater at 10 cents a year, which he himself admits is a ridicu- 

 lously low figure. Then, estimating the value of the purely 

 migratory species as one-sixth of that of the breeding species 

 (both resident and migratory), he asserts that without the 

 services of the birds the yearly bill for insect injury in the 

 country would be more than $444,000,000 greater than it now 

 is. This sum is more than one-third of the latest estimate of 

 the total annual damage by insects in the United States. 1 



UTILITY OF BIRDS IN WAR. 



All humanitarians hope that wars will cease, and perhaps, in 

 time, during the evolution of the race, human nature will be- 

 come so changed that such wholesale murder will be abolished, 

 but probably no man now living will see that day. So long as 

 we have war the services of birds in war should be recognized. 

 In the recent great struggle which involved more than half the 

 world, the keen senses and powerful flight of birds were used to 

 great advantage. 



When the great German airships began to raid England, 

 pheasants and other birds heard or saw them coming at great 

 distances, and gave the alarm by their insistent cries long before 

 human eyes or ears could discern their approach. 



In the trenches great numbers of canaries were used to detect 

 the first approach of poison gas before it became apparent to 

 the less subtle senses of man. The distress of the little birds 

 gave timely warning to the soldiers that it was time to don the 

 gas masks. 



Submarines and mines often were detected by watching the 

 behavior of sea gulls which, owing to the height at which 



1 Speech of Congressman S. D. Fess of Ohio on the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Con- 

 gressional Record, Sixty-fifth Congress, Second Session, Vol. 56, No. 146, June 14, 1918, p. 7956. 



