USN-H 



-2- 



3/13/31 



That is the reason, Ur. McAtee points out, that we need more tird 

 houses to attract the birds. 



There is no question in his mind that, taken "by and laxge, "birds are 

 worth attracting. Some of them at times do considerable damage to fruit, but 

 the point is, the man who doesn't have a continuous population of birds on 

 his place may suffer from the depredations of invading flocks of birds that 

 come in to get his frijiit, and during the rest of the year he gets no benefit 

 from having a steady population of them working on his place to help protect 

 his plants from insect enemies. 



Mr. McAtee says that on the farm practically all birds pay for what 

 they take, 



I asked him about the danger of attracting birds you don't want as well 

 as those you do. And about the likelihood of some of the birds killing off 

 the more desirable ones. 



Near Washington, he told me, the United States Biological Survey has 

 one h'ondred bird houses on three and a half acres. At no time in the past 

 five years have all the houses been occupied, but eight different kinds of 

 birds, including sparrows, house wrens, flickers, bluebirds, crested fly- 

 catchers, tufted titmice, starlings, and martins, have been attracted to these 

 houses and have lived as close neighbors apparently in great harmony. 



Mr. McAtee says that he has never seen any aggressive action on the 

 part of the English sparrows, which are considered by some folks as notorious 

 gangsters. ITor has he seen any trouble between starlings and any of the other 

 birds. These traits, therefore, are not omnipresent. 



In the time the bird settlement mentioned has been in existence there 

 have been a couple of murder mysteries, with e vide nce pointing to birds as 

 killers. One flicker was found in a bird box with a hole in its head, and 

 starlings were suspected. B^jit in ajiother case, a starling was found killed 

 in a similar way. So the score is even. In fact, according to Mr. McAtee, 

 a lot of us have prejudices against birds that aire badly founded, 



"LiOst persons seem to think the robin a little angel and to regard the 

 bird as al^iost sacred," Mr. McAtee sa3''s, "but robins talce many a cherry from 

 the farmer's trees, and their food at other times consists largely of earth- 

 worms, which are themselves beneficial in mixing up the soil and digging 

 burrows, which let air and water into the soil aind otherwise Improving its 

 condition. 



"On the other hand, the European starling, which now has such an -on- 

 savory rep^atation, is one of o^^ most beneficial birds in its food habits. 

 A high proportion of its diet is made up of white grubs, which damage grass 

 roots and other vegetation. They also specialize in eating millipeds and 

 crane-fly grubs, which damage forage crops. 



