CONSERVATION OF BIRDS 89 



the ones with greatest endurance to survive and become the 

 ancestors of the next generation. 



All would go well enough were it not for man's interfer- 

 ence. But man in his might, with his weapons and his tools, 

 and his progress in "Civilization" interfere half wittingly, 

 half unwittingly; half carelessly and half unavoidably, and 

 disturbs the balance of nature. As a result, some inferior 

 species of animals, like cats and squirrels and English Spar- 

 rows, Crackles, Cowbirds and Jays are permitted to increase 

 in undue proportion, while the hiding places, and the last 

 retreats of the more valuable ground nesting birds, as well as 

 tree dwellers, are destroyed, leaving them without nesting 

 places for reproduction, and without hiding places from their 

 enemies. 



Man in his economy, pastures the woods, and the nests of 

 the Ovenbird, Kentucky Warbler, Water Thrush, Indigo 

 Bunting, Bell's Vireo, White-eyed Vireo, Blue-wing Warbler, 

 Towhee and Yellow Throat are destroyed; as a result, there 

 are more canker worms and bark beetles and aphides than for- 

 merly. He cuts the meadow and destroys the nests of the 

 Field Sparrow 7 , the Dickcissel, the Meadowlark and the Grass- 

 hopper Sparrow, and then remarks that the "Grasshoppers and 

 cutworms are very bad this year." 



For a time the old rail fence corners, with their black- 

 berry vines and tall grasses gave shelter to many birds that 

 went foraging for insects in the nearby fields. With a scarcity 

 of timber, the rail fence was replaced by long rows of Osage 

 Orange hedge fences. These were sometimes neglected, and 

 then became the very finest of homes for the Cardinals, 



