186 Jb'KlENDS AND ENEMIES OF PLANTS 



crumbs and scraps that usually are thrown away, we may find 

 that the birds will destroy but very little of our fruit. On the 

 other hand, birds feed largely on insects and thus help to check 

 the hordes which would otherwise destroy the fruit crops. 



The birds are our friends, and we should use every possible means 

 to show our appreciation of them. When trees are not at hand 

 in which they may nest, we should provide suitable bird houses and 

 shelters for them. The tin cans which so often go to the waste 

 heap, when nailed on boards or the side of the barn make very 

 good and inexpensive bird houses. 



Harmful Birds. There are only a few birds that may be classed 

 as harmful or injurious. The sharp-shinned hawk, goshawk, 

 Cooper's hawk, and duck hawk destroy the insect-eating and 

 the weed seed-eating birds and for that reason may be classed as 

 harmful. The first two also prey upon poultry. The crow is 

 sometimes reckoned as being harmful on account of its pulling up 

 and eating corn after it has been planted; but crows destroy so 

 many mice, worms, and grasshoppers that they more than make 

 good any loss that they inflict on the farmer. The English spar- 

 rows are also very injurious on account of their having adopted a 

 vegetable diet in this country. 



Beneficial Birds. Among the birds that are helpful to the farmer 

 are the swallows, woodpeckers, cuckoos, wrens, blackbirds, blue- 

 birds, redbirds, the Baltimore oriole, the mocking bird, and the 

 partridge. The swallows prey upon ants, flies, beetles, and other 

 insects. Cuckoos and wrens eat grasshoppers, caterpillars, bugs, 

 and flies. The bluebird feeds on weed seed in the winter and on 

 grasshoppers and caterpillars in the summer. Woodpeckers eat 

 a great many wood-boring larvae or worms, and also many ants 

 and other kind of insects that burrow into the trunks of trees. 

 The majority of birds do us a great deal of good by devouring 

 weed seed in the winter time and by devouring many injurious 

 insects in the warm season of the year. Teachers should set aside 

 a part of Arbor Day each year as Bird Day, and have suitable 

 exercises on this occasion calling attention to the value of birds 

 and the importance of protecting them. Organize a local Audubon 

 Society and start a crusade against the merciless and useless 

 slaughter of birds. Literature suitable for this purpose may be 



