72 



Bird - Lore 



iltrti'S^ore 



A Bi-monthly Magazine 

 Devoted to the Study and Protection of Birds 



OPFICIAl, ORGAN OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



Edited by FRANK M. CHAPMAN 

 Published by THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Vol. VI 



Published April 1. 1904 



No. 2 



SUBSCRIPTION RATES 



Price in the United States, Canada and Mexico 

 twenty cents a number, one dollar a year, post- 

 age paid. 



COPYRIGHTED, 1904, BY FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



Bird-Lore's Motto: 

 A Bird in the Bush is Worth Two in the Hand 



During April and May the Editor ex- 

 pects to be afield, often beyond the reach of 

 mail, and he begs the indulgence of his 

 correspondents during this period. 



Birds and Farmers 



The investigations of economic ornitholo- 

 gists have so clearly established the value of 

 birds to the farmer that one might imagine 

 their labors ended with the publication in 

 easily accessible form of the results of their 

 work. The average farmer, however, is the 

 most conservative of men. His knowledge 

 of agriculture has usually been gained by 

 the hard, expensive, practical experience of 

 many years. He is self-reliant and conse- 

 quently regards innovations in methods of 

 fertilizing, planting and tilling with more 

 or less distrust and adopts modern ideas 

 with caution. He is so constantly at war 

 with the elements and nature that he is apt 

 to believe that every living creature, from 

 man to grubs, is the farmer's especial enemy. 

 A Cooper's Hawk is seen capturing a 

 chicken and all Hawks are condemned; 

 Crows pull his corn and Robins eat his 

 cherries, and birds in general become grain 

 and fruit thieves. 



Insects, furnished with an artificial food- 

 supply by certain crops, become so abun- 

 dant that it is difficult for him to believe that 

 birds are in any sense a check on the increase 

 of insect life. We recently heard a promi- 

 nent fruit-grower, president of a horticul- 

 tural society, state before a legislative com- 



mittee that he didn't believe birds were of 

 the slightest value to the fruit-grower, who, 

 in his opinion, would be just as well off if 

 there were no birds at all. He had to spray 

 anyway, and it would be just as easy to 

 spray a little more and let the birds go. He 

 unfortunately failed to say whether he would 

 extend his spraying operations to all vegeta- 

 tion subject to insect- attack, though it is 

 quite probable he would have been willing 

 to let the world take care of itself, provided 

 his orchard was preserved. 



A writer in 'The Rural New Yorker' 

 says, " Farmers and fruit-growers surely have 

 the right to expect accurate information as 

 to the economical value of the wild birds 

 likely to be encountered on the farm, from 

 the many official investigators employed by 

 colleges and experiment stations; but the 

 actual status of certain species, according to 

 common observation, is widely at variance 

 with that assigned by writers and teachers 

 of ornithology." A bird's economic value, 

 however, is not to be ascertained by "com- 

 mon observation." A very uncommon kind 

 of training is required to fit one properly to 

 study the food habits of birds and to learn 

 therefrom the place of the species in the eco- 

 nomics of nature and agriculture. Nor can 

 the best equipped observer hope to reach 

 satisfactory conclusions merely from observ- 

 ing the bird out-of-doors. This is an 

 important side of his work, but it must be 

 supplemented by detailed stomach analyses 

 wherein he avails himself of the services of 

 specialists in other departments of science — 

 entomology, botany, mammalogy, etc. Fur- 

 thermore, the investigators in this field are 

 not "many" but pitifully few, nor can we 

 hope that the subject will be adequately and 

 thoroughly studied until each state in the 

 Union realizes its importance, and takes the 

 steps needed to inaugurate a series of inves- 

 tigations. No individual, unaided, can con- 

 duct successfully thorough studies of the food 

 of birds. If the farmers and fruit-growers, 

 therefore, will aid the economic ornithologist 

 he will be very glad to avail himself of their 

 assistance, and in the end they will be bene- 

 fitted by the researches to which he is devot- 

 ing his life and which are made in the 

 agriculturists" interests. 



