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bird would consume nearly half of its own weight of beef in a day. 

 A man at this rate would eat about seventy pounds of flesh daily. 

 Should a pair of robins have four half-fledged young to provide 

 for, each parent would be obliged to secure a worm or its equiv- 

 alent each five minutes for at least ten hours each day to supply the 

 young with needful food. Wilson Flagg, an acute observer of birds, 

 found by experiment that young robins required only insect food 

 and remained healthy and vigorous on that alone. What is 

 true of the young of a robin is undoubtedly true of the young of 

 many other birds. Dr. Brewer says that a pair of jays feed their 

 young five hundred thousand caterpillars in a season. Any one 

 who will watch robins, wrens, cuckoos, jays, woodpeckers and other 

 birds while they are feeding their young will become convinced 

 that the number of insects destroyed by birds is beyond calcula- 

 tion. Many birds eat the eggs of insects. Dr. Brewer says a pair 

 of jays will destroy a million eggs each winter and a titmouse or 

 chickadee destroys many more during an entire year. 



Injurious Habits of Birds. 



Certain birds are injurious to agriculture directly by the de- 

 struction of fruit buds, blossoms, seeds, grains, young plants and 

 vegetables, poultry or doves ; indirectly by the destruction of 

 beneficial insects and birds and by the distribution of noxious 

 seeds. I recall but one native bird which has a habit of destroy- 

 ing the buds and blossoms of fruit trees, viz., the purple finch or 

 red linnet. 



There are several species — the robin, oriole, cat bird, cedar bird, 

 and a few others — that feed to a considerable extent on small fruits 

 in their season. But it must not be forgotten that during the fruit 

 seasons a large portion of their food consists of insects, and that 

 during that time they are engaged in feeding their young almost 

 entirely on insects. At times doves, pigeons, crows, jays, black- 

 birds, reed birds and quails subsist to a great extent on grain. 

 Robins, crows and some other birds undoubtedly distribute seeds 

 of poisonous plants which pass through their alimentary canal 

 undigested and in some cases germinate. Crows, jays and cuckoos 

 destroy the eggs and the young of other birds. Corn is frequently 

 mentioned in connection with crows, jays and blackbirds. A few 

 species of hawks and owls kill many insect-eating birds and some 

 poultry. The " English sparrow" is the only bird that has been 

 justly accused of all the crimes in the calendar of which a bird is 

 capable, and is the only bird in this Commonwealth that is at all 

 seasons an enemy to the farmer. 



