Seo. 11.] BIRDS. 191 



and bugs would be if not destroyed. Besides, birds can be watched and 

 driven away from fields, where no efforts of man would serve to drive away 

 an army of worms, marching to destroy, nor prevent his farm from being 

 devastated by such a flight of grasslioppers as swept every green thing from 

 a portion of Minnesota a few years ago. Birds, then, in countless numbers, 

 will be found to be man's best friends. 



235. The Sap-SuckcrSi — The name of " sap-sucker" has been given to a 

 very useful class of birds, under the erroneous impression that they sucked 

 the sap I'rom the fruit-trees, wlicro they are often seen, hour after hour, 

 clinging to the bole of an apple-tree, patiently drilling, drilling, drilling 

 their little bills through the bark, leaving it, sometimes, as full of holes as a 

 honey-comb. It is a slander upon these beautiful, busy little birds to sup- 

 pose tlieir object is to suck out the sap, and thus destroy the trees. To say 

 that the " sap-sucker" girdles apple-trees and destroys them, or taps tiio 

 Austrian and Scotch pines so as to cause them to bleed to death, we must 

 liave stronger proof than slipshod statements. 



In argument against the birds, it has been stated that they have been shot 



while in the very act of 



"Tapping the hollow beech-tree," 



and their craws examined without finding a worm, and nothing but pieces 

 of bark, thus proving their object to be eating the bark, if not sucking the 

 6ai>, aiul that they were therefore very injurious to trees. These microscopic 

 examinations only prove what we have long believed, that the bird can not 

 always tell where the worm is that he wants, and so has to bore imtil he 

 finds him. It is not likely that he goes fur amiss, and probably liits him 

 oftener with the first hole than he fails. It is thought by many persons that 

 that troublesome little destroyer of fruit, the curculio, deposits its eggs in 

 the bark of trees, and that that is what the sap-suckei- is after. It is certain 

 that when sap-suckers abounded in our orchards, there was no complaint of 

 curculio. In our opinion, a perfectly healthy tree, free from insects, is never 

 attacked by any of the nut-liatch family — vidgarly called " sap-suckers." 

 We believe that, on the contrary, tliey are of essential service to man ; and 

 that it was one of tlic admirable provisions of nature, where everything 

 works on an even balance, until one scale is overloaded by man, that the 

 nut hatch should stand sentinel over the fruit-trees, and keep the pestiferous 

 insects from getting the balance of power.. 



"■!'.)('>. Do Birds I'at Boos ? — It has long been a mooted question whether the 

 birds known as "kingbirds" (the Mui^cicajja ttjrannus) destroy bees? 

 This bird has obtained his name from a sfjirit of boldness in attacking and 

 driving away birds of mucli larger size and power, enough to kill him at a 

 single stroke. lie has obtained the name of a destroyer of honey-bees, and 

 war to the death has been declared against Iiim, on the evidence of his bad 

 name, and, as we think, ^^ithout anything like a fair trial. 



A few years ago we elicited a great deal of testimony upon this question. 

 One witness, Mr, Nathaniel M. Tobey, of Tompkins County, says ho is an 



