No. 4.] BIRDS USEFUL TO AGRICULTURE. 39 



land shot and trapped the crows and blackbirds because they 

 ate corn, an increase of white grubs and cut worms followed 

 soon after, which entirely destroyed the grass crop, so that 

 the farmers were obliged to import hay from England for 

 their cattle.* Nevertheless, the settlers continued the whole- 

 sale destruction of other birds. The wild turkey, prairie 

 chicken and wild pigeon were very nearly exterminated. 

 These and other grasshopper-eating birds being greatly 

 reduced in numbers, plagues of grasshoppers or locusts 

 appeared.! We are told that these insects so increased that 

 the preachers felt obliged at their services in the churches to 

 pray for deliverance. The local killing of blackbirds in the 

 interior States has been followed by a great local increase 

 of white grubs. One farmer from Wisconsin told me that 

 he lost four hundred dollars' worth of grass in one year fi'om 

 the depredations of these insects. During the great locust 

 invasions in the western States many farmers lost their all. 

 But the people at last realized the value of the birds, and 

 passed protective laws, which resulted in an increase of 

 birds in those States. One farmer writes : — 



111 answer to your question about the Wrds and the locusts, I 

 must say this : every farmer that shoots buxls must be a fool. I 

 had wheat this last spring on new breaking. The grasshoppers 

 came out apparently as thick as the wheat itself, and indeed much 

 thicker. I gave up that field for lost. Just then great numbers 

 of plover came, and flocks of blackbirds and some quail, and 

 commenced feeding on this field. They cleaned out the locusts so 

 well that I had at least three-fourths of a crop, and I know that 

 without the birds I would not have had any. I know other farmers 

 whose wheat was saved in the same way. | 



So in time the value of birds began to be recognized 

 among the native population ; but many of the later im- 

 migrant farmers, lacking such experience, continued the 

 slaughter of beneficial birds, and even some native American 

 farmers have yet to learn that most of the birds which live 

 about them are beneficial. Many still shoot the birds that 



* See Kalm's " Travels in America." 

 t Williamson's "History of Maine," passes 102, 103, 172. 



X First annual report of the United States Entomological Commission, 1877, page 

 342. Letter from S. E. Goodmore, Fremont, Neb. 



