12 Wyoming Experiment Station. 



minds of thinking people at least, as to the value of these crea- 

 tures. It is only the vicious, biased, and thoughtless persons 

 who continue ruthlessly to destroy birds indiscriminately with- 

 out first pausing to consider whether or not it is a proper thing 

 to do, whether it is right or wrong. 



"Food Habits. — So varied is this task of evening up jn 

 nature mentioned above that if attended to properly the work- 

 ers must be numerous in individuals and possess widely differ- 

 ent habits. That such is the case can readily be seen by the 

 following brief account of the various groups of our Nebraska 

 birds, along with brief statements of their food-habits. 



"The Grebes and Loons feed chiefly upon snails. and oth- 

 er aquatic animals such as are found about their haunts. They 

 also capture many grasshoppers and similar insects that hap- 

 pen in their way. They cannot, therefore, be classed among 

 the especially bebeficial birds, neither can they be termed in- 

 jurious on account of what they eat. 



"The Gulls, provided as they are with long wings and 

 great powers for flight, are not confined to the sea-coast, hence 

 they reach far inland in their migrations, feeding extensively 

 upon insects like locusts, June-beetles, crickets, etc., large num- 

 bers of which they destroy annually. Several kinds of these 

 birds are known to follow the plow and pick up the white 

 grubs and other insects that are turned up and laid bare. In 

 early days, when grasshoppers did much harm in this state, 

 numerous flocks of these birds were seen to feed upon these 

 insects. 



"The Cormorants and Pelicans are chiefly destroyers of 

 fishes and frogs, hence can hardly be classed among the most 

 beneficial forms, but whether or not they do any more than to 

 maintain the necessary equilibrium in that particular part of 

 the vast field of nature it is difficult to judge without time for 

 investigation. 



"The various Ducks and Geese which are also nearly as 

 aquatic in their habits as some of the foregoing, frequently 



