88 Wild Bird Guests 



which alighted in the rigging. The course of the 

 vessel was changed, the flying birds were made 

 the pilots, and the voyage was thus shortened by 

 two hundred miles and land discovered. 



Few of us, I think, would look to the great 

 dignified, slow-moving, fish-eating white pelicans 

 to help us much in solving our insect prob- 

 lem, yet at times they devour great numbers of 

 locusts. 



The ducks, geese, and swans are of value to us 

 not so much for what they do as for what they 

 are, most of them are excellent for food, and if 

 we gave them reasonable protection instead of 

 permitting them to be slaughtered wastefuUy, 

 they would make a wonderful and perpetual 

 addition to our national food supply. Under 

 present conditions a comparatively few people 

 get most of them, and they are growing fewer and 

 fewer in numbers. 



Spoonbills, ibises, storks, herons, and cranes 

 are all more or less useful as destroyers of in- 

 sects, and at times, such as when insect plagues 

 threaten the crops in certain regions, the services 

 of such birds may prove the salvation of the 

 farmers. An example of such service was given 

 some years ago in Australia when the sheep 

 industry near Ballarat was seriously threatened 

 by a swarm of locusts which was devouring the 



