80 YOSEMITE NATURE NOTES 



Several hundred banding stations scattered widely over the United 

 States are in operation. As many as 30,000 ducks and geese have been 

 banded in one year. One thousand two hundred ducks were banded at 

 one time at Lake Merritt, Oakland. 



CONSERVATION OF BIRDS 



IVhy birds are protected. — Ignorance of the value of our birds is com- 

 mon. Inaccurate observation condemns many birds unjustly. The farmer 

 sees the meadowlark gather a few grains during the time of planting but 

 fails to sec the same bird cat grasshopper after grasshopper at other seasons 

 and so the birds arc hunted. The selfish eye of a fruit grower may see a 

 woodpecker peck a hole in the bam but fails to see the bird eat harmful 

 insects in the orchard. 



Students have observed one pair of grosbeaks feed their young more 

 than 800 larvae of insects in one day of eleven hours. Three thousand 

 ants have been found in the stomach of a flicker at one time. Five hundred 

 mosquitoes were counted in the stomach of a nighthawk. A pair of nesting 

 wrens took m.ore than 600 insects from a garden in one day. A swallow 

 may eat hundreds of fiies a day. The stomach of a quail held 100 potato 

 beetles. Another had eaten more than 500 chinch bugs. 



Bird authorities of Massachusetts estimate one day's work by the birds 

 in that state to be the destruction of at least 20,000 bushels of insects. In 

 every state, millions of insects are destroyed each day. While great numbers 

 are destroyed through other natural agencies, just think, for a moment, of 

 the number of insects the birds in the whole United States destroy in one 

 day and in one year. Not only do birds cat immense numbers of insects 

 and harmful rodents as they forage from daylight to dusk, but they eat 

 thousands of weed seeds each day. 



How to protect birds. — Report any violations of the bird laws, watcli 

 the cats, never put out poison, arrange feeding and drinking places, and 

 never imprison or aid in the imprisonment of wild birds. 



Some bird laws. — -Federal laws prohibit the importation of the English 

 sparrow and other injurious birds and make it illegal to hunt or kill any 

 wildlife in the national parks. Among many other birds protected under 

 the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act are blackbirds, linnets, and shrikes. 



California state law provides that all wild birds, excepting Cooper's 

 hawk, sharp-shinned hawk, duck hawk, great homed owl, jays, *linnet, 

 white pelican, black-billed magpie, crow, *shrike, shag (cormorant), Eng- 

 lish sparrow, and in certain districts *blackbird, are protected. Where 

 a species is not protected by state law but is protected by federal law 

 (indicated by * above), the federal law holds. 



Any person who in the State of Califomia shall at any time hunt, shoot, 

 shoot at, pursue, take, kill or destroy, buy, sell, give away, or have in 

 his possession birds, except those above mentioned, or shall rob the nest, or 

 take, sell or ofTer for sale, or destroy the eggs of any wild bird, other than 

 those above named, is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to fine or 

 imprisonment or both. Game birds are not included under this heading, 

 but are protected by the hunting or game laws. 



Similar laws protect the birds in other states. 



Hawks and owls have an undeserved bad reputation, due largely to 

 the fact that the hawks are known as flesh eaters and the owls are abroad 



