7o FACTS FROM THE FIELD. 
FACTS FROM THE FIELD. 
BY E, H. CRANE, NILES, MICH. 
No, it is not strange that birds are scarce and insects 
plentiful, when we consider that, since this country was 
settled by white men, the demand for building material and 
tillable land made it a necessity to denude the country of 
much of its timber, flora, and foliage, in making room for 
commercial and domestic improvements; that nearly every 
family in early days owned at least one gun; and that there 
are four guns now where there was one in the past, even the 
small boy of to-day being provided, not only with bows and 
arrows, like those of the Red man, but with sling-shots, 
spring and air guns, Flobert rifles, and many other 
modern devices, all of which are daily used in wanton de- 
struction of our little songsters that never do harm to men. 
To kill birds, the natural enemies of insects, makes it pos- 
sible for the latter to increase more rapidly. The removal 
of wild foliage and timber has forced insects, in a great 
measure, to seek cover, food, and breeding-grounds among 
cultivated flowers, vegetables, shrubs, and trees. What is 
more natural than for birds to follow in pursuit of their 
insect food? Men should welcome, not destroy or exter- 
minate, them. When the country was comparatively new, 
farmers suffered somewhat from wild fowl, such as Turkeys, 
Geese, Ducks, Quails, and Pigeons, which were destructive to 
crops; and then the general warfare with guns began, not 
only upon large gregarious and granivorous species, but 
also upon the small birds which subsist largely on insect 
