BROWN THR.\SHER (SEE PAGE 6/7) 



Photo by K. M. licebc 



Hedge-rows, shrubbery about the borders of woods, scrubby growth, or thickets in dry 

 fields, are alike frequented by the thrasher. Generally speaking, he is an inhabitant of the 

 undergrowth, where he passes much time on the ground foraging among the fallen leaves. 

 He is an active, suspicious bird, who does not like to be watched, and expresses his annoy- 

 ance with an unpleasant kissing note or sharply whistled zcliccu. 



Professor Forbes, Director of the Illi- 

 nois State Laboratory of Xattiral Ilis- 

 tory, found 175 larvde of Bibio — a fly 

 which in the larval stage feeds on the 

 roots of grass — in the stomach of a single 

 robin, and the intestine contained ])rob- 

 ably as many more. 



^lany additional cases could be cited 

 showing the intimate relation of birds to 

 insect life and emphasizing the necessity 

 of protecting and encotiraging these little- 

 appreciated allies of the agrictilturist. 



The service rendered man by birds in 

 killing the small rodents so destructive 

 to crops is {performed by hawks and 

 owls — birds the uninformed farmer C(^n 

 siders his enemies. The truth is that, 

 with two exceptions — the sharp-shinned 

 and Cooper's hawk — all our C(5mmoner 

 hawks and owls are beneficial. In his 

 exhaustive study of the foods of these 

 birds, Dr. A. K. Fisher, Assistant Orni- 

 thologist of the L'nited States Dei)art- 

 mcnt of Agriculture, has found that ()0 

 per cent of the food of the red-shoul- 

 dered hawk, commonly called "chicken- 

 hawk" or "hen-hawk," consists of in- 



jiu'ious mammals and insects, while JOO 

 castings of the barn-owl contained the 

 skidls of 454 small mammals, no less than 

 225 of these being skulls of the destruct- 

 ive field or meadi^w mouse. 



HOW THE JJIKDS HELP M.\NK1M) 



Still, these birds are not only not jin^- 

 tectcd. but in some States a price is actu- 

 ally set upon their heads I 



As destroyers of the seeds of harmful 

 plants, the good done by birds catmot be 

 overestimated. From late fall to early 

 s])ring seeds form the only food of many 

 birds, and every keeper of cage-birds 

 can realize how many a bird may eat 

 in a day. Thus, while the chickadees. 

 niUhatches, wood])eckers. and .some other 

 winter birds are richling the trees of 

 myriads of insects' eggs and larvie, the 

 granivorous birds are reaping a crop of 

 .seeds which, if left to germinate, would 

 cause a heavv loss to (^ur agricultural 

 interests. 



.\s scavengers, we luiderstand that cer- 

 tain birtls are of value to us. and there- 

 fore we ])rotect tlu-m. Thus the vulture;* 



-OQ 



