134 



RECREATION. 



Most of the nuts were carried away by the 

 chipmunks to their storehouse. One little 

 fellow had to make many trips, as the ca- 

 pacity of his pouch was not great. I often 

 gave them almonds merely for the pleas- 

 ure of having them sit in front of me, 

 open the nuts and eat the meat leisurely. 

 Nearly all the chipmunks ate from my 

 hand. One in particular would sit upright 

 and fill his pouches until they bulged, as 

 nut after nut disappeared into the mys- 

 terious caverns on his face. One day a 

 certain nut was evidently too large, or 

 the ends too sharp, for he deliberately 

 took it out again, all wet, placed it back 

 in my hand and selected a nut that fitted 

 better in his pouch. Then he raced off to 

 his home with his treasure, but lost no 

 time in returning to me. This was kept 

 up as long as the supply of nuts lasted. 

 After that he had no further use for me. 



In the woods near the house was a 

 long board walk, and when walking there 

 I had to watch my steps carefully to avoid 

 treading on little chipmunk heads peeping 

 up out of the holes in the boards, waiting 

 patiently for nuts to fall, as they inva- 

 riably did when I walked there. 



The gray squirrels were always playing 

 in the trees near the house, and I used to 

 listen attentively to their calls. One day, 

 when I imitated a certain call a squirrel 

 came down the tree at once. When, to 

 his disgust, he found it was only a horrid 

 biped calling he sat up on his haunches 

 and gave me a fierce scolding. 



A pair of robins were housekeeping in 

 one of the trees on the lawn, and I was 

 much amused watchi-ng the unwelcome 

 attentions thrust on them by a red squir- 

 rel, who, no doubt, was looking for some 

 tender morsel, eggs, or the contents per- 

 haps, after they were hatched. The squir- 

 rel would run chattering up and down the 

 tree, followed by one of the robins with 

 wide open beak and outstretched wings, a 

 sight to strike terror to the heart of any 

 animal but a red squirrel. This chase 

 was repeated daily, out I never found out 

 who was the victor. 



One hot day I sought a cool spot un- 

 der a tree on the lawn, intending to en- 

 joy an hour with my book, when my 

 attention was aroused by the sound of 

 persistent humming that was kept up 

 right above my head. I thought it was a 

 bumblebee, but to my delight it proved 

 to be a beautiful humming bird that had 

 followed a woodpecker, which was at 

 work on the tree and which, after eating 

 the grub he had been boring for, flew 

 away to another tree. The humming 

 bird, remaining poised seemingly motion- 

 less on its vibrating wings, thrust its 

 slender bill into the hole made by the 

 woodpecker, sucked the sap that oozed 



from the side, and then flew away to the 

 next tree visited by the woodpecker. 



H. L. Lagowitz. 



BIRDS AND CROPS. 



JAMES FRANK. 



Weeds and insects are the chief enemies 

 of farm crops. Fortunately certain agents 

 are at work to check their ravages, the 

 most efficient being the insect eating and 

 seed eating birds. Many birds visit our 

 farms daily in search of insects, and later 

 in the season these same birds feed in 

 flocks on the ripened seeds of weeds 

 which we have failed to destroy. Since 

 they attack weeds in the most critical 

 stage of life, the seed period, their ser- 

 vices are of great practical value. The 

 benefits rendered by birds are noticed 

 most in the case of hoed crops, where are 

 found the largest number of annual weeds. 

 The principal weeds which birds keep 

 from going to seed on our farms are the 

 rag weed, pigeon grass, smart weed and 

 pig weed. Some birds eat more or less 

 weed seed throughout the year, even 

 when insects are most abundant; but gen- 

 erally their food in the growing season of 

 crops is insects. 



Many of these birds are treated as ene- 

 mies, and often when we visit a garden 

 or a cornfield we may see the farmer run- 

 ning for his gun to shoot and kill, never 

 stopping to consider whether the bird is 

 injurious or beneficial. It is time we rea- 

 lized that in the destruction of these birds 

 we are simply increasing insects and 

 weeds and decreasing our crops' growth. 

 There are few birds on our farms that are 

 not helpful. By feeding the birds in win- 

 ter and spring, when their food is scarce, 

 we soon win their friendship. We should 

 always try to make our places homes for 

 these beneficial birds. 



Our game birds, the ruffed grouse, the 

 prairie chicken and the quail, are also 

 beneficial to our crops in destroying weeds 

 and insects. Early in the season prairie 

 chickens feed their young on the grass- 

 hoppers that abound in our fields. Our 

 friends, the quails, pick up thousands of 

 weed seeds in the fields where grain has 

 been cut and a rank growth of weeds has 

 taken its place. The quantity of grain 

 found in the examined stomachs of these 

 birds is surprisingly small, while the pro- 

 portion of weed seed is astonishingly 

 large. In some cases the crops and giz- 

 zards of these birds have been found to 

 be literally gorged with hundreds of seeds 

 of our pestiferous rag weed. Our little 

 friend is never idle. In late fall and win- 

 ter^ when food is scarce, we may find Bob 

 White scratching in the stubble and de- 

 vouring our hated chinch bug. 



In order that our song birds may enjoy 



