8 BIEDS OF CALIFORNIA AFFECTING FRUIT INDUSTRY. 



habits. With the evidence all in, it is usually possible for the farmer 

 to properly estimate the status of any given species with reference 

 to his own farm and his own interests and to adopt measures 

 accordingly. 



It can not be too thoroughly insisted that sound public policy 

 everywhere forbids the destruction of birds on a large scale for the 

 purpose of protecting orchard fruits. Wholesale slaughter of birds 

 in the supposed interest of the orchardist is fortunately rare and 

 often proceeds from a mistaken idea of their economic relations. 

 When it is understood that the damage by a certain species is local 

 and exceptional, that the birds in question are on the whole bene- 

 ficial and that their destruction will be a loss to the State, the 

 farmer and the orchardist are usually willing to adopt less drastic 

 measures in defense of their crops and to spare the birds for the 

 sake of the general weal. 



STATUS OF BIRDS IN NEWLY SETTLED REGIONS. 



When a new country is settled, large areas are plowed and brought 

 under cultivation. In the process great numbers of native shrubs, 

 weeds, and grasses are destroyed, and various new and exotic plants 

 and trees are substituted. Coincident with this change in the vege- 

 table life, and as a necessary consequence of it, great changes in the 

 conditions and distribution of animal life take place. Some species 

 are restricted in distribution and greatly reduced in numbers, or even 

 exterminated, while others become more abundant and more widely 

 dispersed. The reduction in numbers may occur from actual killing 

 by man, from the destruction of natural breeding sites through 

 clearing, and from a diminution of food traceable to the same cause. 

 The results are exactly the opposite when cultivation and planting 

 afford a more abundant supply of food, greater facilities for breed- 

 ing, and better protection from enemies. The natural result of such 

 conditions is a marked increase in number of the favored species, 

 and this increase probably explains the great devastation of crops 

 by birds that occurred on the Atlantic seaboard soon after the first 

 settlements, and then successively in the States to the westward as 

 these were gradually settled. 



The early days of agriculture in California offer an interesting case 

 in point. When the native grasses and weeds of the fertile valleys 

 were destroyed to make room for grain, many species of birds, 

 notably blackbirds and quails, were suddenly deprived of their natural 

 subsistence and in place of it were supplied with an abundance of 

 new and nutritious food. Naturally they preferred the cultivated 

 grains (wheat, barley, and oats) to the wild oats (Avena fatua) upon 

 which they had largely depended. Still later, when many of the 



