6 OUR DOMESTIC BIRDS 



production of domestic birds. Indeed, the wild birds are much 

 more valuable to us in the wild state than they would be if 

 domesticated. 



In nature species prey upon each other the lowest forms of 

 life upon inorganic and decayed matter, the higher forms upon 

 the lower, the larger creatures upon the smaller, the savage 

 upon the defenseless. Fertile lands not only produce luxu- 

 riant vegetation but teem with insect life, which, if not kept in 

 check, would soon destroy that vegetation. In tropical and 

 semitropical regions there are mammals, some of them quite 

 large, which feed upon insects. In temperate regions where 

 insects are not to be obtained during the winter, there would 

 be no adequate check upon their increase and the consequent 

 destruction of vegetation if it were not for the vast numbers 

 of insect-eating migratory birds which come to these regions 

 for the summer. Necessary as these birds are to vegetation on 

 uncultivated lands, they are more necessary in cultivated fields, 

 orchards, - and gardens where the crops are more attractive to 

 insects than the mixed vegetation on wild lands. As insect 

 destroyers the domestic birds that are kept on cultivated lands 

 only fill the place of the nonmigratory wild birds that have 

 been driven away or exterminated. So it is to the interest of 

 every one to protect insect-eating wild birds, for although these 

 birds may do some damage to crops, their service usually more 

 than pays for it. 



Classes of domestic birds. There are three classes of domestic 

 birds poultry, pigeons, and cage birds. The poultry class com- 

 prises land and water birds and contains nine kinds fowls, 

 ducks, geese, turkeys, guineas, peafowls, pheasants, swans, and 

 ostriches. The pigeon class has but one kind, the pigeon, 

 which is the only aerial bird domesticated for economic pur- 

 poses. The cage-bird class has as its most important repre- 

 sentative the canary. The other birds of this class have never 

 been popular in America. 



