142 THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 



WILD BIRDS AND THE FARMER 



BY 



F. E. L. BEAL 



Assistant, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



Whether a bird is beneficial or injurious depends almost 

 entirely upon what it eats. In the case of species which are very 

 abundant, or which feed to some extent on the crops of the 

 farmer, the question of their average diet becomes one of supreme 

 importance, and only by stomach examination can it be satisfac- 

 torily solved. Field observations are at best but fragmentary and 

 inconclusive and lead to no final results. Birds are often accused 

 of eating this or that product of cultivation, when an examination 

 of the stomachs shows the accusation to be unfounded. Accord- 

 ingly, the Biological Survey has conducted for some years past a 

 systematic investigation of the food of those species which are 

 most common about the farm and garden. 



Within certain limits birds eat the kind of food that is most 

 accessible, especially when their natural food is scarce or want- 

 ing. Thus they sometimes injure the crops of the farmer who has 

 unintentionally destroyed their natural food in his improvement 

 of swamp or pasture. Most of the damage done by birds and com- 

 plained of by farmers and fruit growers arises from this very 

 cause. The berry-bearing shrubs and seed-bearing weeds have 

 been cleared away, and the birds have no recourse but to attack 

 the cultivated grain or fruit which have replaced their natural 

 food supply. The great majority of land birds subsist upon in- 

 sects during the period of nesting and moulting, and also feed 

 their young upon them during the first few weeks. Many species 

 live almost entirely upon insects, taking vegetable food only when 

 other subsistence fails. It is thus evident that in the course of a 

 year birds destroy an incalculable number of insects. 



In winter, in the northern part of the country, insects become 

 scarce or entirely disappear. Many species of birds, however, 

 remain during the cold season and are able to maintain life by 

 eating vegetable food, as the seeds of weeds. Here again is an- 

 other useful function of birds in destroying these weed -seeds and 

 thereby lessening the growth of the next year. 



