10 



The nuthatches, titmice, and others of our winter and early spring birds 

 are too well known as friends to make it necessary Here to even hint at 

 their usefulness. The eggs of many hibernating insects are quite prominent 

 among the things eaten by them throughout the season when the trees are 

 bare and bird food is scarce. 



The Robin and the Bluebird need no introduction even to our boys and 

 girls. We all know them only to wish that their numbers could be greatly 

 increased. The former as it hops over the grass-covered lawn in search of 

 cut-worms, is engaged in its chief occupation. Seventeen quarts of caterpil- 

 lars, it is claimed, is the average number .of such insects destroyed by each 

 robin annually; and of this quantity about one-half or more are cut-worms. 

 We need not stop to ask whether or not the destruction of these will pay for 

 the cherries and berries eaten. 



Summing up the Work of our birds as relates to their destruction of insects, 

 it can be briefly stated as follows: 



"In the air swallows and swifts are coursing rapidly to and fro, ever .n 

 pursuit of the insects which constitute their sole food. When they retire, 

 the night-hawks and whippoorwills take up the chase, catching moths and 

 other nocturnal insects which would escape the dayflying birds. Flycatchers 

 lie in wait, darting from ambush at passing prey, and with a suggestive click 

 of the bill returning to their post. The warblers, light, active creatures, 

 flutter about the terminal foliage, and with almost the skill of a humming- 

 bird, pick insects from leaf or blossom. The vireos patiently explore the 

 under sides of leaves and odd nooks and corners to see that no skulker escapes. 

 The woodpeckers, nuthatches, and creepers attend to the trunks and limbs, 

 examining carefully each inch of bark for insects' eggs and larvae, or excavat- 

 ing for the ants and borers they hear within. On the ground the hunt is con- 

 tinued by the thrushes, sparrows, and other birds that feed on the innumer- 

 able forms of terrestrial insects. Few places in which insects exist are neg- 

 lected ; even some species which pass their entire lives in the water are preyed 

 upon by aquatic birds."* 



In nearly every case where the food habits of our birds have been care- 

 fully studied, do we find that the good done far exceeds the possible harm 

 that might be inflicted by our birds. Allowing twenty-five insects per day 

 as an average diet for each individual bird, and estimating that we have 

 about one and one-half birds to the acre, or in round numbers 75,000,000 

 birds in Nebraska, there would be required 1,875,000,000 insects for each 

 day's rations. 



Again estimating the number of insects required to fill a bushel at 120,000, 

 it would take 15,625 bushels ofinsects to feed our birds for a single day, or 

 2,343,750 bushels for 150 days. These estimates are very low when we take 

 into account the numbers of insects that various kinds of our .birds have 

 been known to destroy in a single day. For example, the stomach "of four 

 chickadees contained 1,028 eggs of cankerworms. Four others contained 

 about 600 eggs and 105 mature females of this same insect. The stomach 



♦Frank M. Chapman in Bird Life — D. Appleton & Co. 



