R-U.S.N. 12/30/32 



grasshoppers, and on grulis and cutv/oirnsi jBut thoBfe three insects don't "begin 

 to cover the birds' entire hill of f&re. Birds feed on just about eveirj kind 

 of harmful insect you can mention. And a great many different kinds of birds 

 eat the same insects. Specialists, who :iave looked into the eating habits of 

 birds, find 205 different kinds of birds eat v/irev;orm s and 95 different species 



eat grubs . I might ^ive you a whole host of other examples for instance, 



175 kinds of birds feed on leafhoppers , and 110 feed on billbugs , and so on. 



But don't think for a minute that birds sir.Tply taste a lot of different 

 kinds of insects and then eat very few insects of any one kind. 



If you have ever watched birds traveling back and forth all day long 

 with food for their young, you can appreciate what great nvunbers of insects 

 a bird can eat in a day' s time. Take that busy little house '.7ren, for instance. 

 The house wren brings a load of food to its young about once every 2 minutes 

 all day long. Of course , not many birds can equal the wren' s record. Uost 

 birds probably feed only once every 5 to 8 minutes. But even once every 5 or 8 

 minutes counts up pretty big in 10 or 12 hours. 



The bird men checked up on the work of the birds on a 200-acre farm in 

 North Carolina. That farm was over-run with green bugs, or wheat aphids. But 

 the bird men found 3,000 birds on that farm. They figured the birds were 

 cleaning up the wheat aphids at the rate of a million a day. 



If you had a hired man who killed a million hannful crop insects a day, 

 you probably would think he did a pretty good day' s work. You would at least 

 think he was worth his board and keep. TTell, the birds certainly deserve the 

 same consideration. 



But, maybe you wonder just why the birds need any particular attention? 

 TThy can't they look after themselves? 



Uell, as L. McAtee says, — and I.lcAtee is a bird authority in the 

 United States Biological Survey — The birds work along willingly and faithfully 

 as long as you give them a decent place to live. But, every time you clear 

 out a piece of woods, or drain a piece of wet ground, or cut down a hedge - 

 row, you wipe out birds' homes, and shelters. Finally things get so civilized 

 the birds just 'up and leave.'" 



B'j.t some of you may ask. "Can we afford to leave a lot of hedgerows, 

 aod thickets around the farm, simply as shelter for the birds?" 



At one time, we may have thought we couldn't. But, as we have moved 

 on farther and farther with our plows and axes, we have pressed the birds 

 harder and harder. And now we begin to realize the value of birds. TJe find 

 it may pay us to give them a little attention, after all. 



In a great many places, schools, local bird clubs, and Audubon societies, 

 are cooperating with landov/ners to set up bird refuges on farms. The land- 

 oTOer agrees to furnish the land and act as a kind of warden, v/hile the club 

 or school agrees to post the places and put up bird houses, and feeding stations. 

 If the landowner and club decide to make the farm a refuge for g.ime birds, the 

 club may stocl: the farm with birds. Of course, if folks go to a lot of trouble 

 to set up a bird refuge, they want to protect it. So, the folks who set up the 



