436 ZOOLOGY 



other hurtful rodents are captured by owls, hawks, and other 

 preying birds. 



These facts are at the bottom of the recent agitation that 

 egg collecting and the slaughter of birds for sport shall stop. A 

 careful, seven year investigation of the subject yields the fol- 

 lowing list of birds which do more injury than good: the Eng- 

 lish sparrow. Cooper's hawk and the sharp-shinned hawk, the 

 sapsucker, and the crow. Recent investigations show that the 

 robin is the most numerous bird in the United States, averaging 

 six pairs to every farm of 58 acres. The English sparrow comes 

 second with five pairs to that area. For every 100 robins there 

 were found 49 catbirds, 37 brown threshers, 28 house wrens, 

 and 26 bluebirds. 



The skins and feathers of birds have been much used for 

 ornament by savage men and civilized woman. The traffic 

 in skins and plumes has been a very extensive and profitable 

 one, and is calculated to hasten the extermination of some 

 species. Laws are gradually becoming more prohibitive and 

 public sentiment is coming to support them. Shooting birds 

 for sport and encoiu-aging killing them for their plumage are 

 alike barbarous. The national government, the states, and 

 private individuals should be encouraged to establish preserves 

 where birds may not be killed. 



Because the undigested material from the digestive tract and 

 the nitrogenous excretion from the kidneys are eliminated to- 

 gether the manure of birds is very rich. Large deposits of this 

 material, known as guano, are found along the dry coasts and 

 islands on the west shore of South America. It is deposited by 

 sea-birds that have lodged there for ages. The richest of these 

 deposits are already exhausted. 



Of a real vital value to man are the song and color and the 

 poetry of the life of birds. These esthetic featiures of birds and 

 their wonderful habits and instincts have attracted thousands 

 of people to the fields and woods. Man cannot get back to 

 nature and the wild life in an open-minded and appreciative 

 way without being the gainer. It is by no means a shallow 

 appeal that we encourage the bird life in order that nature may 

 be kept as interesting and beautiful as possible. The fact 



