LANDLORD TO THE BIRDS 7 



It is not necessary in this chapter to discuss at 

 any length the harmful birds. They are relatively 

 few in number, the worst being the goshawk, the 

 Cooper and sharp-shinned hawks, which are the only 

 ones that seriously raid poultry. Bobolinks are 

 harmful to the Southern rice-fields, destroying as 

 high as ten per cent, of the crop. Crows are 

 neither all bad nor all good; they are the most 

 human of birds! The English sparrow is an un- 

 diluted pest because he drives out other and much 

 more desirable birds, and should always be de- 

 stroyed, either by poison, by traps, or by a gun. 

 Knocking down the nest does no good, though 

 taking out the eggs every day helps. The robin 

 and certain other birds sometimes seriously raid 

 small-fruit crops, particularly the cherry, but by 

 planting a few trees of a wild variety on the edge of 

 an orchard they can be controlled; and in most 

 cases the good they do outbalances the harm. The 

 great bulk of our common North American birds 

 are unreservedly our friends, in a very real sense, 

 working for us at least ten hours a day, busily, 

 without pay, singing at their labors, destroying 

 insect pests, keeping down weeds, grubbing up 

 worms, helping the beneficent forces in nature in 

 their endless battle with the parasites. Their total 

 economic value in this capacity is far up in the 

 millions of dollars. Their destruction would mean 

 a very grave disturbance of the balance of nature ; 

 and, conversely, their protection by every means in 

 our power is as much a duty as any other form of 

 conservation. Sentiment may be left quite out of 

 the question. 



