BIRDS 293 



connected with the Bureau of Biological Survey of the United 

 States Department of Agriculture, and pamphlets giving the 

 results of these investigations can be had from the Superin- 

 tendent of Public Documents, Washington, D. C. The food 

 habits of over 400 species of native birds and of several intro- 

 duced kinds are referred to in these publications. Full reports 

 based on stomach investigations have been made on the food of 

 173 native species. As a result of all this work it has been 

 clearly shown that a great majority of birds are chiefly beneficial 

 to man by eating noxious insects and seeds of weeds. Most 

 birds commonly reputed to be harmful, and for that reason 

 shot by farmers and fruit-growers, have been proved to do 

 much more good than harm. An investigation of the food 

 habits of the crow, a bird of ill-repute among farmers, based 

 on an examination of 909 stomachs, show that about 29 per 

 cent, of the food of the year consists of grain, of which corn 

 constitutes something more than 21 per cent., the greatest 

 quantity being eaten in the three winter months. All of this 

 must be either waste grain picked up in fields and roads, or 

 corn stolen from cribs and shocks. May, the month of 

 sprouting corn, shows a slight increase over the other spring 

 and summer months. On the other hand, the loss of grain 

 is off-set by the destruction of insects. These constitute more 

 than 23 per cent, of the crow's yearly diet, and the larger 

 part of them are noxious. The remainder of the crow's food 

 consists of wild fruit, seeds, and various animal substances 

 which may on the whole be considered neutral. However, 

 some few birds have been proved to be, on the whole, 

 harmful. 



The slaughter of birds for millinery purposes has become so 

 fearful and apparent in recent years that a strong movement 

 for their protection has been inaugurated. Rapacious egg- 

 collecting, legislation against birds wrongly thought to be 

 harmful to grains and fruits, and the selfish wholesale killing 

 of birds by professional and amateur hunters, help in the work 

 of destruction. Apart from the brutality of such slaughter, 

 and the extermination of the most beautiful and enjoyable 

 of our animal companions, this destruction works strongly 



