SHALL WE PAY OUR DEBT? 355 



really were eating grub worms that were busily 

 cutting the corn. Among poultry, a crow seldom 

 secures a chick other than a weakling unable to 

 escape him, and so better removed from the flock. 

 On the other hand, a record of the field mice, small 

 snakes, beetles, grasshoppers, and spiders that a 

 crow takes in a week shows that he pays ten 

 times over for all corn and young chickens he 

 secures in a season. The worst grudge there is in 

 my heart against the crow is his depredations 

 among the eggs and young of invaluable small 

 birds, birds that we can not afford to lose, either 

 on account of their beauty, their song, or their 

 priceless work as insect exterminators. 



The gulls are the scavengers of the lake shore, 

 the vultures and turkey buzzards of the fields and 

 woods. Crows also assist in this work, all of which 

 Is extremely useful and beneficial in ridding the 

 earth of a source of sickness and contagion for 

 man. 



Above both field and forest float the eagles and all 

 the hawks. The eagles and the largest hawks feed 

 on small wild animals, opossums, skunks, ground- 

 hogs, rabbits, moles, field mice, and snakes; also, I 

 regret to enumerate, very small lambs, pigs, and 

 poultry. Studying their habits closely we conclude 

 that birds are better left alone, since their work 

 proves of ultimate benefit to man. One pheasant 

 farmer of one of our southeastern states hired men 

 to help him shoot every hawk in his vicinity, only 



