350 Forty-sixth Report on the State Museum 



greater in this country than anywhere else in the world, and rapidly 

 increasing annually. It had become a necessity that every bird which 

 was of benefit to the agriculturist should be given protection. It was 

 possible to pronounce definitely upon what particular birds were bene- 

 ficial, — which were of negative importance, and which were injurious. 

 This was arrived at through the investigations of the stomachs of birds 

 shot during every season of the year, showing the food upon which 

 each species feeds. These investigations were mainly conducted by the 

 Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy at Washington, and when, 

 as the result of such examinations, perhaps of a thousand stomachs of a 

 single species, it was definitely asserted that such a bird was beneficial, 

 the decision should be unhesitatingly accepted without question. The 

 bird itself had borne testimony to the nature of the food upon which it 

 fed. 



Dr. Lintner asked of the committee to strike out from the printed 

 bill under consideration, the following provision: "Nor does it [this 

 act] protect the English sp^irrow, crane, crow, raven, hawk, shrike, 

 owl, crow-blackbird or king-fisher;" also, the section, providing that 

 the robin, blackbirds, and meadow lark may be killed during the 

 months of November and December. 



Referring to the birds named in the act, the professor said: The 

 provision exempting the English sparrow lacked the stringent legisla- 

 tion against it contained in the old law. This bird was accepted as an 

 unmitigated and intolerable nuisance, the rapid multiplication of which 

 must be checked, even if poison must be used against it, as is being 

 largely done in Australia. 



The crane never occurs in the State of New York; the larger herons 

 are mistaken for it. The precise economic status of the crow and the 

 raven, were not yet determined; their investigation was still going on. 

 It was certain that the crow rendered very valuable service in its feed- 

 ing upon the white grub — a notorious pest, — often pulling up young 

 corn to reach the grub concealed in the hill. 



The hawks and owls, as a class, deserve protection more than any other 

 birds, for the reason that considerably more than 90 per cent of their 

 food cpnsists of the enemies of the farmer, viz., field mice and grasshop- 

 pers. Even the bulk of the food of one or two hen-hawks — the red- 

 tailed and the red-shouldered— consists of injurious rodents, and their 

 occasional attack on poultry may properly be ignored. 



The northern-shrike, notwithstanding its unpleasant popular name of 

 " butcher-bird," had of late years, during its winter sojourn among us, 

 treated itself almost entirely to the English sparrow, killing and impal- 



