THB OOLOOIBT 



How Birds Protect Orchards. 

 W. H. Strong, San Jose, Cal. 

 A very interesting experiment by 

 Mr. E. H. Forbush, State Ornithologist 

 of Massachusetts, shows how the birds 

 will work for us if we will only let 

 them. An old neglected orchard was 

 selected and special efforts were made 

 to attract the birds during the winter 

 months, by preparing food which they 

 particularly liked and placing it where 

 they could readily find it; for instance, 

 suet, which was tied to the branches 

 of the trees. As a result of this effort, 

 the birds instead of leaving when the 

 snow fell, remained; and chickadees, 

 nuthatches, woodpeckers and creepers 

 spent the winter in this old orchard, 

 eating large numbers of eggs of the 

 fall cankerworm moth and the larvae 

 of other injurious insects. In the 

 spring, when the female cankerworm 

 moths appeared, the chickadees fed on 

 these. Other trees in the neighbor- 

 hood were badly infested with worms, 

 while this orchard where the winter 

 birds had been at work was practical- 

 ly free from them. The few which 

 did appear were easily disposed of by 

 summer birds which came to the local- 

 ity. The other orchards were almost 

 stripped of their foliage, but this one 

 retained its leaves, and with one ex- 

 ception was the only orchard in the 

 neighborhood to produce any fruit. It 

 is interesting to note that the excep- 

 tion was the orchard nearest the one 

 in which the experiment was tried. — 

 San Jose Mercury. 



In Defense of the Sparrow. 



W. H. Strong, San Jose, Cal. 

 The English sparrow has been so 

 universally condemned of late that one 

 might believe that it had not a re- 

 deeming quality. It is true that it is 

 pugnacious, driving away other birds, 

 even those much larger than itself. It- 

 is largely a city bird, and its nests are 



not pleasant objects, where they are 

 numerous or to be seen, but we be- 

 lieve these are the principal charges 

 against it. We have often watched 

 these birds in the evening catching 

 moths and other injurious insects for 

 their young, and have been impressed 

 with their value as insectiverous birds. 

 They will catch insects on the wing 

 by hundreds. They are largely a city 

 bird, and fond of the haunts of man. 

 It is not often that they will be found 

 far out in the country or away from 

 houses. But the Sparrow has been 

 given a bad name, whether altogether 

 deserved or not we are not prepared 

 to say, but Professor H. B. Fullerton, 

 of the Long Island Experiment Sta- 

 tion, comes to its defense and says: 



"We have proof positive that no soil 

 tiller can afford to kill even the par- 

 ticularly friendless English sparrow. 

 This year we watched these little fel- 

 lows with great interest. They were 

 mighty busy after their plunge in our 

 bird bath, some in the newly seeded 

 ground, others along the rows of plants 

 just up. In company with the English 

 sparrows were the little ground spar- 

 row, of which we have many. All were 

 bound on exactly the same errand, and 

 morning after morning we saw the 

 menu, and each morning it was the 

 same; it consisted of great numbers 

 of cut-worms, from the cabbage de 

 stroying size to the tiny little fellow 

 that later reaches tomato plant cut- 

 ting stage, and the general destruction 

 of the shoots of bulbs, both flowering 

 and edible." 



Yes, they do eat bugs sometimes, 

 but a native song bird will eat them 

 all the time, except for stealing a lit- 

 tle fruit. Maybe the sparrows are 

 better than no birds at all, but most 

 people would be glad to swap all the 

 sparrows in sight and hearing for a 

 handful of bluebirds or a pair of 

 thrushes, 



