THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF ANIMALS 211 



Not all birds are seed or insect feeders. Some, as the cormorants, 

 ospreys, gulls, and terns, are active fishers. Near large cities 

 gulls especially act as scavengers, destroying much floating gar- 

 bage that otherwise might be washed ashore to become a menace 

 to health. The vultures of India and semitropical countries are 

 of immense value as scavengers. Birds of prey (owls) eat living 

 mammals, including many rodents ; for example, field mice, rats, 

 and other pests. 



Extermination of our Native Birds. Within our own times 

 we have witnessed the almost total extermination of some species 

 of our native birds. The American passenger pigeon, once very 

 abundant in the Middle West, is now extinct. Audubon, the 

 greatest of all American bird lovers, gives a graphic account of 

 the migration of a flock of these birds. So numerous were they 

 that when the flock rose in the air the sun was darkened, and 

 at night the weight of the roosting birds broke down large branches 

 of the trees in which they rested. To-day not a single wild speci- 

 men of this pigeon can be found, because they were s]aughtered 

 by the hundreds of thousands during the breeding season. 

 The wholesale killing of the snowy egret to furnish ornaments 

 for ladies' headwear is another example of the improvidence 

 of our fellow-countrymen . Charles Dudley Warner said, " Feathers 

 do not improve the appearance of an ugly woman, and a pretty 

 woman needs no such aid." Wholesale killing for plumage, eggs, 

 and food, and, alas, often for mere sport, has reduced the number 

 of our birds more than one half in thirty states and territories within 

 the past fifteen years. Every crusade against indiscriminate 

 killing of our native birds should be welcomed by all thinking 



pests. The average locust weighs about fifteen grains, and is capable each day of 

 consuming its own weight of standing forage crops, which at $10 per ton would be 

 worth $1743.26. This case may serve as an illustration of the vast good that is 

 done every year by the destruction of insect pests fed to nestling birds. And it 

 should be remembered that the nesting season is also that when the destruction of 

 injurious insects is most needed ; that is, at the period of greatest agricultural 

 activity and before the parasitic insects can be depended on to reduce the pests. 

 The encouragement of birds to nest on the farm and the discouragement of nest 

 robbing are therefore more than mere matters of sentiment ; they return an actual 

 cash equivalent, and have a definite bearing on the success or failure of the crops. 

 Year Book of the Department of Agriculture. 



