Director of the Experiment Station. 



It is no easy task to induce the public mind to understand or try to 

 understand what the bird life means to the country. This little fairy 

 world is accepted by the great majority of people as a mere accident 

 in the great course of events, and useful only to help develop marks- 

 manship among the young boys. Birds do not have any place of im- 

 portance in the mind or life of the average human being. Usually, 

 the bird student or bird lover is considered a little cranky. He is 

 often regarded as a rainbow chaser, or one "hard put" to find some- 

 thing of interest in the world. 



Dear readers, the birds have been placed here in this world for a 

 great and serious purpose. They deserve our best thought and all the 

 protection we can give them. It has been recently calculated that 

 without bird life, our insect enemies would multiply so rapidly that 

 within a very few years, the whole surface of the earth would not 

 grow enough plants to feed them, and they would first starve to death 

 all other known animals, and then starve themselves down to a stand. 

 They would let only enough plants grow to feed those that survive the 

 mighty struggle in their own ranks. 



How about this relationship between birds and insects? The bird 

 population of Georgia alone is something like 75,000,000, including all 

 species. This great army of friends goes forth every day in the 

 fields and woods to find food. Seventy per cent of all of them eat 

 insects and insect eggs. All of them eat some insects at some time in 

 their lives. We can safely and conservatively say that if it takes 

 150,000 insects on an average to make a bushel, and if each insectivor- 

 ous bird eats from 200 to 400 insects daily, this wonderful army would 

 eat at least 60,000 bushels of insects every day of their active lives in 

 Georgia alone. For this calculation we use only the lowest figures in 

 each case. 



We should ask ourselves then if it is worth while to protect our 

 bird life? Some of the birds eat a few berries, and other fruit. Other 

 species eat some grain and other field crops. Once in awhile a species 

 develops a taste for buds on certain fruit trees. In every case the 

 bird helps to protect the crop from the insect w r orld, and is according 

 to law entitled to a little of the proceeds of the farm and orchard 

 and the forest. But were it not for the birds, neither the farm nor the 

 orchard could prosper. This has been clearly shown in certain parts 

 of Europe, and in the New England states. The birds seem to be 

 most active in their pursuit of the species of insects commonly found 

 in orchards and fields. For this reason they get by far the larger 

 per cent of them. We must conclude that the conservation of bird 

 life is necessary and should be promoted in every way. 



In addition to their usefulness, birds are beautiful. Nature has 

 endowed them with the peculiar gift of flight, which has enabled them 

 to master the air. They are as sure of wing as we are of foot, and do 

 not hesitate to lift themselves above the rugged parts of the earth's 

 surface, rivers and ravines, and even long arms of the sea. They have 

 become so much a part of the upper air that we would not willingly 

 do without them. We love to look at them as they fly from tree to 



16 



