INSECTS AND BIRDS. 313 



where it finds destructive grubs and cutworms and 

 many injurious beetles, in addition to the common 

 earthworms, which is only one item in its bill of fare. 

 The favorite bluebird eats very little fruit and, like the 

 robin, feeds on field insects as well as on caterpillars. 



Wrens are among the best helpers in both orchard 

 and garden. The great sparrow family is valuable 

 not only in keeping down weeds, but also in destroying 

 insects. The native sparrows are absolutely indispen- 

 sable to the man who cultivates the soil as they hold in 

 check some of the worst pests of field and garden. 

 Blackbirds of all species are pre-eminent as destroyers 

 of grubs, grasshoppers and caterpillars, and even the 

 crow, though often a nuisance to the farmer, and a 

 destroyer of small birds, is a very necessary evil in 

 grasshopper time. 



The Bobolink, although a pest to the rice farmer of 

 the South, is a blessing in the fields of the North. 

 Mourning doves are 

 among the most voracious 

 of weed destroyers. Bob- 

 whites and meadow larks 

 are now generally be- 

 lieved to rank higher 

 than all the other birds NESTING MOURNING DOVES. 

 of the farm as destroy- 

 ers of insect and weed pests of the garden and field. 

 It will pay the farmer to protect all the above men- 

 tioned birds, with the possible exception of the crow. 



Birds are Valuable to the Farmer. There are many 

 birds beside the bobwhite on the game list that are 

 worth far more to the farmer alive in his fields than the 

 small sum he can get for them in the market. One 

 farmer who has observed carefully the habits of the 

 bobwhite says that he considers every one in his fields 

 worth five dollars a year to him as an insect destroyer. 

 While this may be an exaggeration it is easy to com- 

 pute the annual value to the farmer of a family of bob- 

 whites or meadow larks at somewhere near that figure. 



