6 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



a newspaper of Meridan, Miss., says : " Bird protection is going to be made an 

 economic issue in every Southern State before many days, and the army of senti- 

 mental advocates will be reinforced by the utilitarians, who, while caring nothing 

 for the beauty of the feathered songster or the music he makes, are very much alive 

 to his usefulness in exterminating insects that kill crops, and are determined to stay 

 the hand of the snarer and wanton bird-killer before it is too late and the insects 

 have taken possession of the land. * * * Wherever common sense prevails this 

 cause will find advocates, and The State would like to see Bird Protection made an 

 issue in Mississippi politics." 



No " issue," however, can be successfully promoted unless the facts involved rest 

 on the firm, incontrovertible foundation established by exact research. The Forest, 

 Fish and Game Commission of New York State, in calling the attention of the 

 citizens of the State to the economic importance of birds, desires to present, there- 

 fore, the results of the investigations of economic ornithologists into the food 

 habits of our birds. But before giving in detail the studies of these specialists it 

 will be well to outline in a general way how birds may be valuable or injurious 

 to man. 



Wl)at tl)e ^M Does for tl)e Nutate. 



Birds are of value to the State chiefly through the services they render in (i) 

 eating harmful insects, their eggs and larvae ; (2) in eating the seeds of noxious 

 weeds; (3) in devouring field mice and other small mammals which injure crops; 

 (4) in acting as scavengers. The appended outline of the bird's relation to the 

 forester, fruit-grower, farmer, and citizen will enable us to appreciate its economic 

 importance. 



The Bird and the Forester. 



The agriculturist, in producing an artificial condition in the plant world, creates 

 also an unnatural state of affairs among the insects that find a new food in the 

 outcome of his husbandry and among the birds thab prey upon these insects. But 

 between birds and forests there exist what may be termed primeval, economic 

 relations. Certain forest trees have their natural insect foes to which they furnish 

 food and shelter ; and these insects, in turn, have their natural enemies among the 

 birds to which the trees also give a home. Here, thert, we have an undisturbed set 

 of economic relations': (i) the tree; (2) the insect which lives in the tree, preys 

 upon it, and may assist in the fertilization of its blossoms ; (3) the bird which also 

 finds a home in the tree and, feeding upon insects, prevents their undue increase. 

 Hence, it follows that the existence of each one of these forms of life is dependent 



