106 AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST. 
causes such as winds. snow and wild or domestic animals. But by 
far the greatest number of birds is destroyed by man himself. Now 
it is not the purpose of this article to arraign mankind for its bar- 
barity towards birds but merely to show the importance of some of 
our common birds in the economy of nature and thus point out a 
few reasons for their preservation. 
The great utility of birds lies in their capacity for destroying 
insects. From time immemorial, man has but feebly combated the 
insect pest, and it is the birds alone that can check its ravages; 
hence, destroy the birds and insects will multiply enormously as 
history only too plainly proves. Much has been written about the 
destructiveness of insects and economic entomologists are constantly 
. adding new species to the long list of pests that destroy our crops. 
'The first report of the entomologist of New Vork,* contains a 
list of 176 species of insects that destroy apple trees, while the 
species that destroy plum, pear, peach, and cherry trees are hardly 
less numerous. 
Kaltenbach gives an extensive listof insects that infest the 
trees of central Europe.j According to this authority, the oak is a 
prey to 537 species of insects; the elm to 107; the poplar to 264; wil- 
lows to 386; birches to 297 and beeches to 154. 
While the forest destroying insects of our country have not 
been studied as long as those of Europe some very astonishing dis- 
coveries have been made. Dr. Packard { lists over 400 species 
which are destroying our oaks and expresses his belief that this 
number represents, perhaps, only one half of the species actually in 
existence. He places the number of species that attack the hickory 
at 140; those that ravage the maple at 85; the poplar at 72 and those 
that live on the pine at over 100 different kinds. 
The species of insects which feed on grasses, cereals, field and 
garden crops are enormous in numbers and each succeeding year . 
adds new names to the list. The loss occasioned by these pests 
reaches far into the millions of dollars annually. Packard says 
that ‘‘we lose annually by the attacks of insects on agricultural 
products not far from one hundred millions of dollars.”” 
The Bulletin of the New York State Agricultural Society for 
the year 1854 shows a loss of fifteen million dollars through the rav- 
* Report of the Commissioner of Fisheries and Game for Ind. Page 980. 
+ Ibid.—Page 981. 
t Packard, A. S. Entomology for Beginners. Pp. 191. 
