



l|| Jnurfo^ ©rm^ufcjkl mh. ftokpat 



WHAT THE BIRDS ACCOMPLISH. 



fHE swallow, swift and nighlhawk are 

 the guardians of the atmosphere. They 

 check the increase of insects that otherwise 

 would overload it. Woodpeckers, creepers 

 and chickadees are the guardians of the trunks 

 of trees. Warblers and flycatchers protect 

 the foliage. Blackbirds, crows, thrushes 

 and larks protect the surface of the soil. 

 Snipe and woodcock protect the soil under 

 the surrface. 



Each tribe has its respective duties to 

 perform in the economy of ratine, and it 

 is an undoubted fact that if the birds were 

 swept off the face of the earth man could 

 not live upon it. Vegetation would with- 

 er and die. Insects would become so nu- 

 merous that no living thing could with- 

 stand their attacks. The wholesale des- 

 truction occasioned by grasshoppers, which 

 have lately devastated the West, is un- 

 doubtedly caused by the thinning of the 

 birds, such as grouse, prairie-hens and the 

 like, which feed upon them. 



The great and inestimable service done 

 to the farmer, gardener and florist by the 

 birds is only becoming known by sad ex- 

 perience. Spare the birds and save your 

 fruit. The little corn and fruit taken by 

 them is more than compensated by the 

 quantities of noxious insects they destroy. 

 The long-persecuted crow has been found 

 by actual experience, to do more good by 

 the vast quantities of grubs and insects he 

 devours than the harm he does in the few 

 grains of corn he pulls np. He is one of 

 the farmers' best friends. — Golden Days. 



A SUPERSTITIOUS SAILOE. 



/VVANY sailors are cuperstitious, and be- 

 P^J lieve in bird omens. Not long ago 

 the Norwegian barque Ellen picked up for- 

 ty-nine men, the passengers and crew of the 

 steamer Central American, wrecked in mid- 

 ocean. Says the captain of the Ellen: ''About 

 six o'clock one afternoon I was standing on 

 the quarter deck, there being near me the 

 man at the holm and two others of the crew. 

 Suddenly a bird grazed my right shoulder, 

 and flew around me. Afterward it flew 

 around the vessel. Then it began again to 

 fly around my face when I caught it. The 

 bird was utterly unlike anj I have ever seen. 

 The color of the feathers was a dark iron- 

 gray. The body was a foot and a half in 

 length, with wings three and a half feet 

 from tip to tip. In capturing the bird, it 

 gave me a bite on the thumb. Two of the 

 crew who assisted in tying its legs were also 

 bitten. As it tried to bite everybody, I 

 had its head cut off, and the body was 

 thrown overboard. When the bird flew to 

 the ship we were headed a little east of 

 northeast. I regarded the appearance of 

 the bird as an omen, and an indication that 

 1 must change my course. I accordingly 

 steered to the eastward direct. I should 

 not have deviated from my course had not 

 the bird visited the ship, and had it not 

 been for this change of course L should 

 not have fallen in with the forty-nine per- 

 sons whom I saved from death." So much 

 for superstition; whether the bird was an 

 omen or not, it will always remain as such 

 in the captain's mind. — Golden Days. 



