314 FUNDAMENTALS OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sandpipers, plover, grouse, wild ducks, herons, and 

 even some of the gulls and other water birds have been 

 recorded as among the chief friends of the farmer 

 during great insect eruptions in the western states. 

 The history of the invasions of the Rocky Mountain 

 locust and the western cricket is replete with instances 

 where crops were saved by gulls, plover, sandpipers 

 and other birds of the open. 



EXERCISE. Make a rough estimate of the value of bobwhites to the 

 farmers of your community, when one bobwhite is worth $5 a year. 



SECTION LIT. OTHER BIRDS. 



Birds Keep Down Disease. The services of the 

 swallows, martins, swifts, nighthawks and whippoor- 

 wills are not generally understood; but among the in- 

 sects destroyed by these birds are vast numbers of flies 

 and mosquitoes. Five hundred mosquitoes have been 

 found in the stomach of a single nighthawk. Whip- 

 poorwills and swifts destroy millions of them. Swal- 

 lows not only rank high among fly-catching insects, but 

 they also sweep the grass tops and eat countless myr- 

 iads of field and garden pests. Martins are particu- 

 larly useful about the garden. Two quarts of the 

 wingcases of the striped cucumber beetle were found 

 in a martin box at the close of the season. 



Utility of the Birds of Prey. The eagles, hawks 

 and owls have been regarded from time immemorial 

 as among the chief bird enemies of the farmer. Not- 

 withstanding the position which has been assigned them 

 by time-honored prejudice, most of the birds of prey 

 are beneficial to agriculture, and some of the owls are 

 among the most useful of birds. A few species of 

 hawks and owls are very destructive to poultry and 

 game, but among the others only an occasional individ- 

 ual is the culprit, while the many seldom or never at- 

 tack poultry. Most hawks and owls feed on perni- 



