xx INTRODUCTION 



plague the farmer, and by checking the insects 

 that destroy the produce of the agriculturist. 

 The great value of birds is demonstrated. The 

 questions are, how to attract them where they 

 have disappeared, and then how to protect the 

 crops from their occasional depredations. Mr. 

 Forbush, who has experimented in the matter 

 in Massachusetts, both fed the birds and planted 

 bushes to attract them. He says: "It is evi- 

 dent that a diversity of plants, which encourages 

 diversified insect life and assures an abundance 

 of fruits and 'seeds as an attraction to birds, will 

 insure their presence." 



The cultivated crops can be protected in two 

 ways either by mechanical devices that frighten 

 the birds away from the fruit or grain fields, or 

 by the substitution of wild or cultivated foods. 

 To frighten the birds away, white twine can be 

 strung across berry beds ; string, hung with bits 

 of glittering waste tin, over fields ; while stuffed 

 Hawks and cats can be kept in orchards. To 

 attract the birds from cultivated fruit, it is well to 

 plant some wild fruit that will bear during the 

 weeks when the birds eat the garden or orchard 

 crops. In this connection Mr. Forbush says : " I 

 wish particularly to note the fact that the mul- 

 berry-trees, which ripen their berries in June, 

 proved to be a protection to the cultivated cher- 

 ries, as the fruit-eating birds seem to prefer them 

 to the cultivated cherries, perhaps because they 



