PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 257 



not realize that often the daily activities and behavior of certain animals 

 are serviceable to us in a remarkable degree; even so much that the 

 animal may be of greater value alive than dead. 



In this category, of course, we place the birds, which, because of their 

 peculiar habits and relations in nature, may be regarded as the most valu- 

 able and beneficial of all the animlal groups. 



We may emphasize this relation of bird's to man by saying that there 

 is much reason to suspect that birds may be almost indispensable to us. 

 To those who appreciate the enormous destruction of crops by insects, 

 and the prodigious fertility of these small organisms, it does not appear 

 as an idle dream to predict great difticulty in the raising of crops, if the 

 principal checks to the multiplication of insects were to be eliminated. So 

 far as the zoologist can see, there are only two important checks upon the 

 increase of injurious insects; these are predaceous insects and insectivor- 

 ous birds. 



We do not need new laws for the protection of the smaller insect- 

 eating birds, but we need a stronger public sentiment in favor of the 

 rigid enforcement of the laws already on ouir statutes. The farmer 

 will derive the most immediate benefit from the enforcement of laws 

 protecting our so-called "song birds." Iowa, being primarily an agri- 

 cultural state, should be ready to take a position of leadership in this 

 matter of economic zoology and practical agriculture. 



While certain rights are generally conceded to the small birds, there 

 are one or two large birds which do not share in this protection of pub- 

 lic opinion, because they have the misfortune to <be classed as "game 

 birds;" a term which usually refers to their edibility, but which should 

 have quite a different significance. These birds are the bob-white or 

 quail, and the prairie chicken. 



The bob-white is much too valuable a bird to be killed as game at 

 any season of the year. He is one of the birds which is worth more 

 alive than dead. He is known to feed upon 135 different kinds of in- 

 sects, including the potato beetle, cucumber beetle, cutworms, army 

 worm, wire worms, chinch bugs, cotton-boll weevil, and many others. 



It has been said that a bob-white eats about seven and one-half pounds 

 of insects and 100 pounds of weed seed per year. The natural life of a 

 bob-white is about ten years. Several bevies of quail on a farm are, 

 therefore, desirable because of the service they render. 



But these birds are on the verge of extermination in Iowa. There may 

 be a few in certain localities, but there is no denial of the fact that they 

 are practically disappearing. They ought to be given a closed season 

 until they become so numerous as to be a nuisance. 



Very much the same general statement may be made for the prairie 

 chicken. The chief of the United States biological survey says this 

 bird is a "valuable ally of agriculture." Mr. Hiinshaw further says of it: 

 "Being non-migratory, it is state property, and its fate rests solely with 

 the individual states within which it resides. Considering its past 

 abundance, the fine sport its pursuit affords to the legitimate sportsman, 

 its delicacy for the table, and the valuable service it renders the farmer 

 in destroying his insect enemies, the record of its treatment is a shame- 

 ful one. In many states no protection whatever was given this bird 



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