12 ‘BIRDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 
fruit, and would serve the added purpose of attracting insectivorous 
birds te the locality. Birds undoubtedly select breeding places with 
reference to the convenience of food and water, and a constant supply 
of the latter attracts to the vicinity many desirable species. The 
insectivorous kinds would more than pay the orchardist for his trouble 
in their behalf by feeding upon the insects that injure his trees; 
while fruit-eating species, like the linnet, being able to quench their 
thirst with water, would not be compelled to resort to fruit for this 
purpose. 
The writer once observed a leaky hydrant situated between two 
rather extensive areas of orchards. The little pool maintained by the 
drip of this pipe was almost constantly surrounded by birds which 
all the time were coming and going, so that the number that visited 
it each day must have been well up in the thousands. An arrange- 
ment for this purpose need be neither elaborate nor expensive, and 
would serve a useful purpose. 
READJUSTMENT OF CONDITIONS. 
In relation to the destruction of crops by birds in a comparatively 
newly planted region, experience everywhere shows that after a time 
there is a partial readjustment of conditions, so that inroads by birds 
become much less common or wholly cease. On the Atlantic side 
of the continent at the present time, with the exception of the 
ravages of bobolinks in the rice fields of the southeastern coast States, 
few if any cases are known of the annual destruction of crops by 
birds, while during the first half of the nineteenth century the 
several species of blackbirds were a constant menace to grain. Pres- 
ent immunity results from the fact that increased density of popula-- 
tion has destroyed the nesting sites and reduced the numbers of some 
of the most noxious birds. This readjustment of conditions is likely 
to take place sooner or later in all cases where the balance of nature 
is disturbed, but in most cases the process may be hastened by the 
adoption of measures like the ones above mentioned. 
DAMAGES BY -BIRDS GENERALLY. 
Study of a number of cases of serious damage by birds leads to the 
conclusion that as a rule such damage is due to the concentration of 
a great number of birds within a limited area, usually of a single 
species or several closely allied ones. If the birds are seed eaters, 
they visit the grain fields and leave ruin and destruction in their path; 
if fruit lovers, they seek the orchard and play havoc with the crop. 
Ingtances of this kind are the raids of bobolinks in the rice fields of 
