100 BIKD FRIENDS 



worth of damage, in some orchards mining from one 

 fourth to one half the crop. 



There is seldom any widespread complaint re- 

 garding the harm done by birds in destroying fruit, 

 the injury usually being confined to some small lo- 

 cality where there has been an increase in the 

 number of fruit-eating birds or a decrease in the 

 supply of wild fruit on which these birds usually 

 subsist. 



The remedy is not found in permitting wholesale 

 slaughter of these birds throughout the whole coun- 

 try, but it may be necessary to allow shooting in 

 those localities where the harm is done, so that the 

 fruit-growers may protect themselves. Those birds 

 which feed on cultivated fruits feed to an even 

 greater extent on wild fruits, which if present in 

 sufficient quantities, are usually preferred to the 

 cultivated. 



Complaints against the robin have come chiefly 

 from two sources, the suburbs of large towns in the 

 East and the prairie region of the West. In these 

 localities those wild fruits which robins prefer are 

 naturally lacking, and hence the robins turn to the 

 cultivated fruits. 



Injury to grain. Several birds do considerable 

 damage to grain, either to the newly planted seed in 

 the spring, or to the matured grain in the fall. The 

 grains chiefly affected are corn, wheat, and oats. 

 The birds that feed upon grain, in the order of the 



