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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



to replant, or have only a partial stand, 

 and thereby lessening his crop. 



But to return to the king-bird, which 

 Mr. Bryan styles " Tyrannus Tyrannus.^' 

 which, if I am correctly informed, should 

 be Tyrannus intrepidus, Tyrannus be- 

 ing the genus, and intrepidus the 

 species ; the genus Tyrannus, including 

 a large number of species, among them 

 the thrushes, orioles, and others. 



Nearly all the defenders of these birds, 

 that are in some way or other a pest to 

 man, cite as a reason for sparing them, 

 the good they do in the way of destroy- 

 ing insect enemies, yet with all the 

 birds, if the fruit-grower of the present 

 day wishes to be certain of a crop of 

 marketable fruit, he must resort to 

 spraying with arsenites, or other pois- 

 ons, for if he depends upon the birds to 

 keep in check the codling-moth, the 

 plum and peach curculio, and other 

 equally noxious pests, he will be badly 

 "left." 



The farmer, when the chinch bug, the 

 army worm, or the Hessian fly, make 

 depredations upon his growing crops, 

 cannot depend upon the innocent birds 

 to destroy them. 



But do not think from what I have 

 said that I am an enemy of the birds 

 that are in no way a hindrance to man. 

 I love to see them, hear their songs, and 

 study their habits, as well as to be able 

 to name the different kinds. No one, 

 who is not wicked, it seems to me, can 

 help admiring their beautiful plumage, 

 and enjoy the elevating influence of 

 their presence. 



But to return to the king-bird and his 

 relations to the bee or bee-keeper. I 

 presume the few bees that he destroys 

 would not make any considerable show- 

 ing in a large apiary, yet if, as Mr. R. 

 says, it is mainly in the early part of the 

 season, when other insects are scarce, 

 that he chooses to. subsist on bees, this 

 is only an argument against his king- 

 ship, for at this time is when one bee 

 counts for two or three, or perhaps half 

 a dozen, bees later on. However, as I 

 said, the loss to the bee-keeper may he 

 of small moment, but is it doing the fair 

 thing by your bees, to stand by and suf- 

 fer this vagabond to snap up the busy 

 little workers while they are diligently 

 performing their duties? This assasin, 

 too lazy to hunt for an honest living ! 

 Man is not naturally a predacious being, 

 but when he falls to committing crime 

 and murder, the laws of nearly all civi- 

 lized nations say that he must pay the 

 penalty with his life. 



Again, we know not how often virgin 

 queens are snapped up when going out 



to mate, thus causing a great loss to the 

 bee-keeper ; not only the value of the 

 queen herself, but without strict vigi- 

 lance in the apiary, the possibility of the 

 colony becoming queenless, with no 

 means of rearing another, thus causing 

 the weakening or almost certain loss of 

 a colony. 



The orioles, thrushes, and cat-birds 

 are often a great nuisance about a fruit 

 farm, often pecking into the largest 

 berry of some new strawberry that the 

 grower is testing. It is here again not 

 the amount that the fruit-grower 

 misses — if they would only eat what 

 they want, and not destroy so much by 

 pecking just once into each large berry 

 that comes under their notice. 



The cedar-bird, wasp-wing or cherry- 

 bird, Bnmbycilla carolincnsis, is a beau- 

 tiful bird to look upon, especially if you 

 can see him close enough to examine 

 his crest, and the highly-colored, wax- 

 like feathers on his wings ; but let a 

 large flock of these alight in your choice 

 cherry-tree, laden with luscious fruit 

 that will be ready to pick in a day or 

 two, and see how your cherries will dis- 

 appear ! Here again we should be too 

 good, too sentimental and tender-hearted 

 to take down the shot-gun and keep the 

 offender at bay I 



Our children are fond of cherries and 

 other fruit; we have cared for the tree 

 for years in hopes of partaking of the 

 fruit we expected it to produce, but here 

 now are the innocent little birds — how 

 can we have the heart to molest them '? 

 Now should I fire into that tree with a 

 load of No. 12 shot, from a ten quay 

 gun, and kill a dozen or more of these 

 pretty little thieves, does Mr. Bryan 

 think that they would be missed from 

 the circle ? Does he think that the in- 

 sect pests would be very much more 

 plentiful after that? When we consider 

 the hundreds and thousands of useful 

 birds that are in no way a nuisance to 

 man, it will surely make no difference to 

 kill off a few of those that are destruc- 

 tive to bees, fruit, etc. 



Take the wren, swallow, martin, 

 chimney-swifts, the numerous fly-catch- 

 ers, and a host of others that are always 

 useful in destroying insects, and never 

 attack bees or fruit, and we surely have 

 a number overwhelmingly large com- 

 pared with the few that we might kill, 

 that are troublesome in one way or 

 other. To wantonly kill birds that are 

 useful to man is certainly sinful, and 

 surely no sane man will dispute it: but 

 when it comes down to defending those 

 that destroy our crops or useful bees, it 

 is certainly going past the limit. We 



