Photo by K. II. Beebe 

 BROWN THRiVSHER (SEE PAGE 677 j 



Hedge-rows, shrubbery about the borders of woods, scrubbv growth, or thickets in dry 

 helds, are ahke frequented by the thrasher. Generally speaking, he is an inhabitant of the 

 undergrowth, where he passes much time on the ground foraging among the fallen leaves. 

 He IS an active, suspicious bird, who does not like to be watched, and expresses his annoy- 

 ance with an unpleasant kissing note or sharply whistled ivhecu. 



Professor Forbes, Director of the Illi- 

 nois State Laboratory of Natural His- 

 tory, found 175 larvre of Bibio — a fly 

 which in the larval stage feeds on the 

 roots of grass — in the stomach of a single 

 robin, and the intestine contained prob- 

 ably as many more. 



Many additional cases could be cited 

 showing the intimate relation of birds to 

 insect life and emphasizing the necessity 

 of protecting and encouraging these little- 

 appreciated allies of the agriculturist. 



The service rendered man by birds in 

 killing the small rodents so destructive 

 to crops is performed by hawks and 

 owls — birds the uninformed farmer con- 

 siders his enemies. The truth is that, 

 with two exceptions — the sharp-shinned 

 and Cooper's hawk — all our commoner 

 hawks and owls are beneficial. In his 

 exhaustive study of the foods of these 

 birds, Dr. A. K, Fisher, Assistant Orni- 

 thologist of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, has found that 90 

 per cent of the food of the red-shoul- 

 dered hawk, commonly called "chicken- 

 hawk" or "hen-hawk," consists of in- 



jurious mammals and insects, while 20c 

 castings of the barn-owl contained the 

 skulls of 454 small mammals, no less than 

 225 of these being skulls of the destruct- 

 ive field or meadow mouse. 



now THE BIRDS HEEP MANKIND 



Still, these birds are not only not pro- 

 tected, but in some States a price is actu- 

 alh' set upon their heads ! 



As destroyers of the seeds of harmful 

 plants, the good done by birds cannot be 

 overestimated. From late fall to early 

 spring seeds form the only food of many 

 birds, and every keeper of cage -birds 

 can realize how many a bird may eat 

 in a day. Thus, while the chickadees, 

 nuthatches, woodpeckers, and some other 

 winter birds are ridding the trees of 

 myriads of insects' eggs and larvae, the 

 granivorous birds are reaping a crop of 

 seeds which, if left to germinate, would 

 cause a heavy loss to our agricultural 

 interests. 



As scavengers, we understand that cer- 

 tain birds are of value to us, and there- 

 fore we protect them. Thus the vultures 



709 



