29 



permitted ; the Swallows, fortunately for us, however, interfere and gorge them- 

 selves upon these creatures, the Purple Martins particularly, destroying vast 

 numbers of them, even after the ants have divested themselves of their wings; 

 when this has taken place the Martins alight on the ground pursuing them there 

 with the greatest activity. 



The Chimney Swift, which closely resembles the Swallows in its habits, except 

 that it never alights on the ground even to obtain the materials for its curiously 

 constructed nest, may be mentioned in connection with them, its economic value 

 being equally great. 



Night Hawks. All the Swallow tribe gather their food during the day, and 

 the hotter and brighter it is the more active they seem to be ; the Chimney Swift's 

 period of greatest activity is the early morning and late evening. The Night 

 hawk and Whip-poor-will commence their work at dusk and keep it up till sun- 

 rise. Their food consists, for the most part, of the large night-flying moths and 

 beetles ; on one occasion, however, I found the stomach of a Whip-poor-will filled 

 with the large female wingless ants, which could only have been obtained from 

 the ground, and in all probability in the day time. The common June bug is a 

 favorite article of food with both these birds, and as this is a very destructive 

 insect both in its larval and mature stages, the birds are entitled to our best con- 

 sideration for the good work they do in lessening its numbers. None of the 

 Swallows, Swifts or Night Hawks ever under any circumstances take any 

 vegetable food, nor have they any habits that are open to objection of any kind, 

 so that our utmost efforts should be put forth to preserve them and encourage 

 them to build about our premises. 



I have heard one or two people state that they did not like Swallows about 

 their houses because they brought bed bugs ; how such an idea got into any per- 

 son's head is difficult to understand, and let me say most emphatically that there 

 is no foundation for the belief whatever. Swallows, like all other living creatures, 

 nave their insect parasites, but no parasite affecting the Swallows will ever trouble 

 human beings. 



CONCLUSION. 



There are other families of birds more or less directly beneficial or injurious 

 to our interest, but space will not permit an extended notice of each. I hope 

 enough has been said to impress upon the mind of every one the great value of 

 the majority of our birds to the agriculturist. 



I have seen some estimates of the amount of damage done to the crops by 

 insects in various countries, including our own Province, and although they 

 usually stand at some millions of dollars annually, I believe they are much below 

 the mark. It is difficult to form an estimate of the yearly loss from this cause to 

 ordinary field crops, because the plants are crowded so thickly together that a 

 large proportion may be destroyed in the earlier growing stages without being 

 noticed, and it is only when the matured crop fails to reach the expected quantity 

 that we realize the fact that something has gone wrong, but unfortunately it is 

 then too late to remedy the matter. In our gardens we can more readily see the 

 amount of injury done by insects, and can take measures to reduce it, but in spite 

 of our efforts the loss is still enormous, and consider what it would be if we had 

 not the birds to assist in keeping down the swarm of insect life. The great trouble 

 now is that we have not a sufficient number of birds to keep the balance between 

 vegetable and insect life in our favor. 



