BIRDS USEFUL TO FARM AND ORCHARD 



625 



tracted by insects which, unknown to 

 the farmer or orchardist, are fast ruin- 

 ing his crop. Hence it has been found 

 necessary to examine the stomachs and 

 crops of birds to ascertain definitely 

 what and how much they eat. The Bio- 

 logical Survey has in this way examined 

 upward of 50,000 birds, most of which 

 have been obtained during the last 25 

 years from scientific collectors, for our 

 birds are too useful to be sacrificed when 

 it can possibly be avoided, even for the 

 sake of obtaining data upon which to 

 base legislation for their protection. 



It is interesting to observe that hungry 

 birds — and birds are hungry most of the 

 time — are not content to fill their stom- 

 achs with insects or seeds, but after the 

 stomach is stuffed until it will hold no 

 more continue to eat till the crop or 

 gullet also is crammed. It is often the 

 case that when the stomach is opened 

 and the contents piled up the pile is two 

 or three times as large as the stomach 

 was when filled. Birds may truly be said 

 to have healthy appetites. To show the 

 astonishing capacity of birds' stomachs 

 and to reveal the extent to which man is 

 indebted to birds for the destruction of 

 noxious insects, the following facts are 

 given as learned by stomach examina- 

 tions made by assistants of the Biologi- 

 cal Survey: 



A tree swallow's stomach was found to 

 contain 40 entire chinch bugs and frag- 

 ments of many others, besides 10 other 

 species of insects. A bank swallow in 

 Texas devoured 68 cotton-boll weevils, 

 one of the worst insect pests that ever 

 invaded the United States and 35 cliff 

 swallows had taken an average of 18 

 boll weevils each. Two stomachs of pine 

 siskins from Haywards, Cal., contained 

 1.900 black olive. scales and 300 plant lice. 

 A killdeer's stomach taken in November 

 in Texas contained over 300 mosquito 

 larvae. A flicker's stomach held 28 

 white grubs. A nighthawk's stomach col- 

 lected in Kentucky contained 34 May 

 beetles, the adult form of white grubs. 

 Another nighthawk from New York had 

 eaten 24 clover-leaf weevils and 375 ants. 

 Still another nighthawk had eaten 340 



grasshoppers, 52 bugs, 3 beetles. 2 wasps 

 and a spider. A boat-tailed grackle from 

 Texas had eaten at one meal about 100 

 cotton boUworms, besides a few other in- 

 sects. A ring-necked pheasant's crop 

 from Washington contained '8,000 seeds of 

 chickweed and a dandelion head. More 

 than 72,000 seeds have been found in a 

 single duck stomach taken in Louisiana 

 in February. 



A knowledge of his bird friends and 

 enemies, therefore, is doubly important 

 to the farmer and orchardist in order 

 that he may protect the kinds that earn 

 protection by their services and may 

 drive away or destroy the others. At the 

 present time many kinds of useful birds 

 need direct intervention in their behalf 

 as never before. The encroachments of 

 civilization on timbered tracts and the 

 methods of modern Intensive cultivation 

 by destroying or restricting breeding 

 grounds of birds tend to diminish their 

 ranks. The number of insect pests, on 

 the other hand, is all the time increasing 

 by leaps and bounds through importa- 

 tions from abroad and by migration from 

 adjoining territories. Every effort, there- 

 fore, should be made to augment the 

 numbers of our useful birds by protect- 

 ing them from their enemies, by provid- 

 ing nesting facilities, and by furnishing 

 them food in times of stress, especially 

 in winter. 



Important in this connection is the 

 planting near the house and even in out- 

 of-the-way places on the farm of various 

 berry-bearing shrubs, many of which are 

 ornamental, which will supply food when 

 snow is on the ground. Other species 

 which are not berry eaters, like the wood- 

 peckers, nuthatches, creepers, and chick- 

 adees, can be made winter residents of 

 many farms, even in the North, by put- 

 ting out at convenient places a supply of 

 suet, of which they and many other birds 

 are very fond, even in summer. Hedges 

 and thickets about the farm are impor- 

 tant to furnish nesting sites and shelter 

 both from the elements and from the 

 numerous enemies of birds. 



Few are aware of the difficulty often 

 experienced by birds in obtaining water 



