No. 4.] BIRDS ON THE FARM. 159 



and the wrens more than twice that number of times. 

 Some birds when their young are small will go one hundred 

 and twenty-five to one hundred and thirty times, and nearly 

 every time they carry food, and sometimes from one to 

 twelve worms at a time. Professor Wood says that the 

 daily food of a 3"oung robin is equal to an earthworm four- 

 teen feet long in one day ; and one other authority shows 

 that the young robin eats more than its own weight in worms 

 daily, and that it requires more than one-half its own Aveight. 

 If a man were to eat .sixty-seven feet of sausage, nine inches 

 in circumference, he would eat in about the same proportion. 



Mr. . The kingbird stays around our bee hives, 



and keeps us from getting an increase from the honey 

 product, and eats our bees. 



Mr. FoRBUSH. It has been said that the kingbird does 

 not eat any bees but the drones. They prefer the drones, 

 because they cannot sting. Now, there is a little habit in 

 favor of the king bird that the bee raisers do not always 

 know of. This bird eats the robber fl}', and this is one of 

 the worst enemies of the bee hive. The kinobird is a ^reat 

 destroyer of flies of all kinds ; that is one reason why he is 

 useful. And the kingbird drives away from the region of 

 the farm the crow, hawk, eagle and all birds which molest 

 the poultr}'. Still, we must admit that the kingbird does 

 eat a good many bees. 



Mr. N. B. Baker (of Savoy). On the mountain our 

 corn started very well, but the crows actually ate up all of 

 it. I Avish they would shoot them all. We have no use 

 for them. 



The Chair. I had a little experience the last season, 

 after having hobnobbed with our friend the lecturer. I 

 thought I would try to have some birds about my premises 

 in the city, and I put up five boxes, one on the telephone 

 pole and the other four on the barn. Early in the season 

 some English sparrows undertook to appropriate the boxes. 

 They would light, but they did not make any headway, and 

 later the bluebirds took possession of one. We had three 

 broods of bluebirds and two or three tree swallows, and we 

 enjoyed it exceedingly. 



