CHAPTER XXXV 

 BIRDS AND OTHER INSECT DESTROYERS 



THE farmer is greatly assisted in his war against the 

 insects that prey on crops, orchards and gardens by birds 

 and other creatures that use these pests for food. Every 

 farm boy and girl should learn the most useful of these 

 small friends and protect them in every way. 



1. Birds and Their Food 



Whether certain birds are helpful or harmful to the 

 farmer depends almost wholly on what the bird eats. If 

 its diet consists chiefly of farm grains and domestic fruits, 

 or if the bird kills other useful birds, it is an enemy; if, 

 on the other hand, its food is made up mainly of harmful 

 bugs, beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars and worms, it should 

 be counted as a friend. It is also to be remembered that 

 many birds that eat grain or fruit as a part of their diet 

 may kill enough noxious insects in return to pay far more 

 than for the damage they do. Besides devouring insects, 

 many species of birds eat immense quantities of weed seed, 

 thus reducing the weed crop of the next season. 



Food of some common birds. Scientists of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture have examined 

 the stomachs of many birds to determine the nature of their 

 food, and thus discover their relation to agriculture: 



The quail or bobwhite eats weed seed, potato "beetles, 

 squash beetles, the boll weevil, chinch-bug, grasshoppers, 

 cutworms, etc. 



510 



