Birds and the Fruit-Farm 311 



marauders. Protect the hawks and the owls; they 

 are among our best friends. Every hovering bird, 

 happening to fly above the chicken-house, in the 

 empyrean blue, is not a cooper-hawk, or a sharp- 

 shinned hawk; be sure you are right before you 

 shoot. 



Woodpeckers? Yes all woodpeckers except the 

 yellow-bellied sapsucker. No policemen on the 

 farm are more valuable than the members of 

 the great woodpecker family. And these birds 

 surpass all others for value in the orchard. 



Warblers? Yes, the entire family, and a very 

 large family too. Nothing escapes them — larvae, 

 flies, scales, ants, worms, slugs, grubs, bugs, and 

 plant lice by the million. Watch a warbler catch- 

 ing insects from the tmderside of a plimi leaf, 

 cherry leaf, apple leaf, grape leaf, berry leaf, 

 and then conclude whether you really want to 

 shoot him. 



Thrushes? Yes, all. These are the plirnip, 

 common insectivorous birds, and the robin most 

 common of all: hermit thrush, wood-thrush, 

 brown-thrush, all friends. Do you protect cut- 

 worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars? The thnishes 

 will exterminate them if you give them the chance. 



Swallows? Sky-birds, all, and great fly-catchers. 

 What has become of the old-time barn-swallow? 

 We still have mud and bams. Only seven species 

 of the swallow family in the United States and 

 six of these east of the Mississippi River. Since 

 we have painted imder the eaves of our bams, 



