UTILITY OF BIRDS IN FIELD AND GARDEN. 277 



Usually there is no nesting place in the garden for tree- 

 breeding birds, and the operations of tillage and weeding 

 make nesting unsafe and impracticable for the ground birds. 

 Where tillage is not very frequent or strenuous, a few birds 

 may nest in the garden. There was a time when Sparrows 

 frequently built their nests in potato hills, and Sandpipers 

 reared their young in cornfields ; but more intensive cultiva- 

 tion has driven them out. Birds now rarely breed in culti- 

 vated fields or gardens, except where trees, bushes, or vines 

 furnish them nesting places ; but the farmer prefers to have 

 no trees in the garden, as they interfere with the cultivation 

 of other plants, and so the birds are kept out. We have, 

 therefore, practically no garden birds, and the service that 

 we get from birds in the garden must be rendered by those 

 which come there from woodland, orchard, swamp, field, or 

 meadow, or those which, like the Swallows and Swifts, fly 

 over the garden and take insects in the air. 



But if a bird comes into the garden, it is often regarded 

 with suspicion ; and if it takes a few peas, strawberries, or 

 a little corn, it is fortunate to escape with its life. All 

 services the bird has rendered or may render are lost sight 

 of in view of the fact that it has taken some of the fruits of 

 man's toil. We can feed our cattle, our hogs, a vagabond 

 homeless cat, a stray dog, or a tramp ; but if a bird claims 

 any of our bounty, capital punishment is not too severe 

 for it. 



The garden has become a paradise for insects. Here they 

 find the most succulent food plants, finely developed, and 

 grown in patches or masses, often by the acre. Abundant 

 opportunity is thus offered for the increase and spread of 

 insects which confine themselves to a few food plants. In- 

 sects leave the wild plants on which they formerly fed, and 

 gather to the feast in the garden . They increase in numbers ; 

 they multiply a thousand fold. The few birds that now ven- 

 ture into the garden select such insects as they like best, and 

 the rest run riot among the crops. 



Partly for the foregoing reasons, and partly because some 

 of the most important garden pests have nauseous or poison- 

 ous secretions and are eaten by few birds, we get much less 



