7© 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 



