BIRDS HARMFUL TO MAN 



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where they are most abundant 

 they cause harm by killing 

 useful birds. 



English sparrow. The Eng- 

 lish sparrow is an example of 

 a bird introduced for the pur- 

 pose of insect destruction, 

 that has done great harm 

 because of its relation to our 

 native birds. Introduced at 

 Brooklyn in 1850 for the 

 purpose of exterminating the 

 cankerworm, it soon aban- 

 doned a diet largely of insects 

 in favor of one of grain and 

 has driven out many of our 

 native insect feeders. In- 

 vestigations by the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture show that 

 in the country these birds and 

 their young feed to a large 

 extent upon grain, thus show- 

 ing them to be injurious to 

 agriculture. Dirty and very 

 prolific, they have long since 

 worked their way from the 

 East to the Pacific coast. 

 The English sparrow has be- 

 come a national pest, and 

 should be exterminated in 

 order to save our native birds. 



Birds harmful to man. 

 While there are a few birds 

 that do both harm and good, 

 like the crow, catbird, blue 

 jay, cedar waxwing, and robin, 

 there are others that are bad, 



L. W. Brownell 

 Is the screech owl a beneficial or harmful bird ? 

 Why? 



W. Brownell 



A warbler feeding a young cowbird which is 

 nearly as large as its foster mother. 



