CHAPTER XXV 



WILD BIRDS AND OTHER INSECT- 

 EATING ANIMALS 



249. Most Birds Benefit the Farmer, because their 

 food consists very largely of harmful insects, weed seeds, 

 mice, etc. Some birds eat the grain or do much damage 

 to the fruit, but without the birds, the insects would be 

 far more destructive. In 1753, Benjamin Franklin 

 wrote to a friend: "In New England they once thought 

 blackbirds useless, and mischievous to the corn. They 

 made efforts to destroy them. The consequence was, 

 the blackbirds diminished, but a kind of worm which de- 

 voured their grass, and which the blackbirds used to feed 

 upon, increased prodigiously; then, finding their loss 

 in grass greater than their gain in corn, they wished 

 again for the blackbirds." 



250. Birds Like Insect Food Best. Every one has 

 noticed how the field-larks, and other birds, fly into the 



newly plowed furrow. They 

 are not looking for freshly 

 planted seeds as some sup- 

 pose, but for worms and in- 

 sects which the plow uncovers. 

 They prefer insects, but will 

 eat weed or grain seeds if in- 

 sects are scarce. In summer 

 the field -lark (or "meadow- 

 lark," as he is most often called 

 in the North) eats insects 



Fig. 115. Food of the meadow- 

 lark by months. 



(180) 



