CHAPTER FOURTEEN 



THE FARMER'S FEATHERED HELPERS 



Think of your woods and orchards without birds . . . 



They are the winged wardens of your farms, 

 Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe, 



And from your harvests keep a hundred harms. 



HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 



WILD birds are often annoying to the farmer, and 

 he is sometimes tempted to think of them as his enemies 

 and to treat them as such without stopping to inquire 

 whether or not the good they do him may not be far 

 greater than the harm. Our human friends often annoy 

 us, but we do not want to do without them. Even the 

 crow which pulls up newly planted corn in spring will 

 later destroy numberless grubs, cutworms, and field 

 mice, thus protecting the crop from its enemies. It is 

 troublesome for perhaps a month at planting time, but 

 during the other eleven months it does much to redeem 

 its character. 



Beneficial We cannot say of any bird that it is altogether harmful 

 ful birdT' or altogether beneficial. We can only put into one 

 class birds that are more beneficial than harmful and 

 into another class those that do more harm than good. 

 The first class, which may be called beneficial, contains 

 nearly all our common birds. Few birds should be 

 classed as enemies. 



The useful birds. The government has a department 

 called the " Bureau of Biological Survey " which makes 

 a business of finding out the habits of birds and animals. 



