BIRDS 



BIRDS 



507 



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567. Hairy woodpecker. 

 (Length 9 in.J 



which exposed galleries of wood-boring ants. The hairy woodpecker 

 (Fig. 567) is equal to the downy in importance, being fond of 

 wood-boring beetles and wood-boring ants. Its large size and 

 strong beak give it much power in drilling deep. A few ears of corn 

 and a little suel will attract him. He is becoming less common than 

 the other woodpeckers. The flicker is much misunderstood. Anta 

 constitute about 40 per cent of his food, and he eats, also, many 

 beetles, grasshoppers, and caterpillars, besides some wild fruit. The 

 red-headed woodpecker Is especially 

 fond of beech-nuts and acorns. It stores 

 them for winter use. In its storehouse 

 are often to be found quantities of 

 dried grasshoppers also. It is an irregu- 

 lar permanent resident in the East, 

 but in the West it migrates regularly. 

 The yellow-bellied sap^ucker {Fig. 568) 

 doubtless iloes con.siderable harm; in 

 fact, it is responsible for most of the 

 objectionss to woodpeckers in general. 

 Whether the good done in destroying 

 insects in the breeding season balances 

 the harm done in sucking sap is an 

 open question. The sapsucker drills 

 holes in the trunks of many of the most 

 valuable trees, as sugar maple, birch, 

 pignut hickory, pine, apple, mountain- 

 ash, beech, and others. The death of 

 the trees may result not only from the 

 loss of sap, but from the work of borera 

 that deposit eggs in the holes. If the 

 sapsuckers are to be destroyed, care 

 must be taken not to kill the downy 

 woodpecker at the same time. Fortu- 

 nately, the sapsuckers are resident in 

 fruit sections for only a short time in 

 the spring and autumn. In their north- 

 ern breeding - grounds they destroy 

 many noxious insects. The red-bellied 

 woodpecker annoys growers of Florida 

 by its fondness for orange juice. Else- 

 where it is of much value as a destroyer of anta and beetles and 

 other insects. 



The chickadee is a permanent resident. Many other birds seek 

 their company, so that one haa but to follow them as they rove 

 to 6nd many smaller birds. This is particularly true in spring and 

 fall, when the warblers are in migration. In an experiment in 

 Massachusetts, chickadees were attracted to an orchard in the 

 winter by means of suet fastened to the trees. The birds destroyed 

 multitudes of eggs of the fall canker-worm moth. The conclusion 

 was reached that one chickadee would destroy in one day 5,550 

 eggs; and in the twenty-five days during which the canker-worm 

 moths crawl up the trees 138,750 eggs might be taken by one 

 chickadee. Chickadees readily accept a nesting-box. 



The white-breasted nuthatch is the constant companion of the 

 chickadee and the downy woodpecker. It takes from the bark 

 great numbers of eggs of canker-worms, and many of the oyster- 

 shell bark-louse, and even the hairy caterpillars of the gypsy moth. 

 It is easily attracted by suet and will often eat crumbs as well. 

 The red-breasted nuthatch, a smaller bird with dull reddish bieast, 

 comes from the North in September, spending the winter in attend- 

 ing to tree-trunks, and returning North in the spring. 



The brown creeper, with its. long cur\'ed beak, rounded back, 

 and stiff tail, is especially valuable for service among shade trees. 

 It starts at the base of the trunk, ascending spirally, quietly investi- 

 gating crevices as 

 it goes. 



The slate-colored 

 junco. or snowbird, 

 comes from the 

 North in autumn 

 and remains all win- 

 ter, busy all the 

 time in reducing 

 the number of weed- 

 seeds. The snow- 

 birds rove in little 

 fiocks, and easily 

 respond to seeds 

 and crumbs put in 

 any open place. In 

 the North the junco 

 destroys many in- 

 sects, for the young 

 eat insect food only. 

 The American 

 robin (Fig. 569), 

 (which is a very 

 different bird fiom 

 the robin of Eu- 

 rope ), is protected 

 b^ law in all of the 

 Lnited States ex- 

 cepting seven of the 

 southern states. 

 The National Asso- 

 ciation of Audubon 

 Societies is making 

 efforts to secure the 

 passage of laws 

 better calculated to 

 568. Yellow-belliea woodpecker, or protect it. .^^n ex- 



sapsucker. (Length Sh in. J amination of the 





stomachs of 330 robins showed that vegetable food constituted 

 about 58 per cent of the contents. Of this, 47 per cent was wild 

 fruit, with only a little over 4 per cent cultivated fruit. The United 

 States Department of Agriculture has shown by recent investiga- 

 tion that in the South the robin is essentially an insect- eating bird. 

 The robin is the great enemy of the white grub, the young of the 

 May-beetle or June-bug. The robin is an inveterate devourer of 

 earth-worms in spring. Although the earthworm is useful to the soil, 

 if it were allowed to increase naturally, with no interference by the 

 birds, it would rapidly become a pest. The favorite food of young 

 robins is the cutworm, and this is important, since there are fre- 

 quently two or three broods of robins in a season and a young 



569. The American robin. (10 in.) 



robin's appetite is nearly insatiable. The cutworm feeds at night 

 and is going back to its hole at daybreak, when the robin intercepts 

 it. One may prevent the robin from eating cherries by planting 

 trees that are in fruit at the same time, as the Russian mulberry, and 

 the shadbush and wild cherries, or even a cheap variety of cherry. 

 The strawberry-grower m.ay plant a variety of inferior strawberries 

 to attract the robins from his choice fruit. 



The bluebird (Fig. 570) destroys quantities of cutworms and 

 other caterpillars. In August and September grasshoppers consti- 

 tute more than 60 per cent of its food. It is fond of wild fruit, espe- 

 cially berries. Unfortunately, the bluebird is becoming uncommon. 



The sparrows are among the most valuable birds to the farmer. 

 The food of the native sparrows, as a family, consists of 25 to 35 

 per cent of vegetable matter, and 65 to 75 per cent animal matter. 

 Young sparrows are almost entirely insectivorous until they leave 

 the nest. Many sparrows rear two broods in a season. As soon as 

 the insect season is over, they turn their attention to weed-seeds, 

 of which Beal estimates that tree sparrows alone eat 875 tons in 

 one season; and even this estimate may be too low. Forbush found, 

 among other things, that a song sparrow, even after it had been 

 eating seeds for about an hour before he began to count, ate 154 

 seeds in ten minutes and forty-five seconds. Song sparrows eat 

 the seeds, of such troublesome things as chickweed. purslane, sorrel, 

 dandelion, and dock; also pests like plant-lice and cutworms, and 

 caterpillars of the brown-tail and gypsy moths. The field sparrow 

 (Fig. 571) is smaller than the song sparrow and very shy. It 

 scarcely comes into our towns, but its clear trill from the fields 

 suggests the warm days of late spring and early summer. It has 

 been seen to eat ]\Iay-beetles, leaf-hoppers, saw-flies, spiders, ants, 

 and some earthworms. In the field it prefers weed-seed to grain. 

 The chipping sparrow has the distinction of being the most useful 

 sparrow, having an astonishing list of services to its credit. In the 

 spring it feeds largely upon small caterpillars, as the gypsy, brown- 

 tail, and tussock moths. It destoys at least three species of cater- 

 pillars on the cabbage; it is fond of wild cherries, chickweed seeds 

 and seeds of ragweed, smartwced 

 and many other weeds, including 

 dandelions and the crab-grass of 

 the lawn. The vesper sparrow is 

 nearly as abundant as the song 

 sparrow. It eats quantities of 

 grasshoppers and beetles and 

 weed-seeds. The English sparrow 

 was introduced into the United 

 States in 1850 for the purpose of 

 destroying cankerworms and other 

 insects just then becoming numer- 

 ous. At first it was received with 

 delight. A very short time, how- 

 ever, showed conclusively that it 

 did more harm than good, and 

 now every locality has its "spar- 

 row problem." The charges against 

 the English sparrow are serious. 

 An investigation in Illinois showed 



that out of twenty-five stomachs of English sparrows at a time 

 when 30 per cent of the food of the robin, 30 per cent of the food 

 of the catbird, and 90 per cent of that of the bluebird consisted of 

 insects, no insects were found in these sparrows, excepting traces 

 of grasshoppers making perhaps 6 per cent of the food. However, 

 during the first sixteen days of the nestlings' life, 40 per cent of the 

 food consists of caterpillars, 10 per cent of beetles, and 40 per cent 

 of small grains. This is perhaps the best that can be said for the 

 P^nglish sparrow. It is so pugnacious that it has driven most of the 

 bluebirds, wrens, and purple martins from the towns, while they 

 themselves do not eat the insects that thewe birds would eat. Organ- 

 ized warfare against them has been more or less successful. But to 



570. Bluebird. (7 in.) 



